{"id":4103,"date":"2014-04-18T20:39:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T00:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/?p=4103"},"modified":"2014-04-18T20:39:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-19T00:39:54","slug":"stone-on-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2014\/04\/18\/stone-on-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone on Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far below the surface
\nat depths that rock
\ncould metaphor clouds
\nand their village
\na remembered sky home
\nthey moiled for gold.<\/p>\n

The daily fall to work
\nof one hundred and eighty
\nthump
\nmen in the double-decker car
\ndown the mile-deep shaft
\nthump
\ntook minutes rapid
\nthumping
\nopenings to upper drifts
\nthump
\nseventy-five metres
\nthump
\nevery three seconds
\nthump
\nfor too many minutes
\nthump
\nthump
\nthump
\nthump
\nuntil the hoist operator
\nup top
\nthump
\nsaw the marker
\nthump
\nand the hoist slowed
\nand knees took three Gs
\nthump
\nand the cable stretched
\nwhee
\nand the car rose
\nto pass then settle down to
\nto the forty-five hundred foot
\nlevel where they crossed to the
\nnext hoist down
\nthump
\nto eighty-three hundred
\nthump
\nthump
\nthump
\nthump
\nwhee<\/p>\n

Then they left the lighted
\nlanding and headed into the
\ndrift to the stope.<\/p>\n

Far along the drift
\nwithout the lamps
\non their hard hats
\ndark was so absolute
\neyes would be unnecessary.<\/p>\n

On the day in question
\nthe rookie was to scale
\nhis first stope
\nSven showed him
\nhow to grasp the long scaling bar
\nand use it to jab into
\nthe freshly blasted stope
\nand chip loose rock
\nfrom wall and overhang
\nso they could muck safely.<\/p>\n

He chipped and scaled
\nfor a half hour
\ndropping several tons
\nof rubble to the floor
\nfinally he turned to
\nold Sven, who was watching
\nand said \u201cIt\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sven stood
\nreached for the bar, and tapped
\nthe overhang a few paces
\nfrom where they stood.<\/p>\n

Magically
\na rock the size of a small
\ntruck
\nappeared before them
\nwith a slam
\nthat shook the rookie
\nfor fifty years.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot quite,\u201d said Sven,
\nand the rookie scaled
\nfor another hour
\non the day in question.<\/p>\n

\"NaPoWriMo\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NaPoWriMo 18: 1956 more than a mile underground. I was the rookie in this work. I designed it to be read aloud. “drift” tunnel to the stope. “stope” the work face at the end of the tunnel. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[890,3],"tags":[87,976,737,974,975],"class_list":["post-4103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-napowrimo","category-poetry","tag-death","tag-hard-rock-mine","tag-labour","tag-mining","tag-mining-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4104,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions\/4104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}