Among the slabs of adobe marble

Granite underfoot a few steps 

From the restored cobblestone: 

The pinyin strokes cut into 

The random blocks that do not belong

But history and common use has

Baptized in Spanish: piedra china

 

They have travelled it is said

Far in trade and purpose

Discards of granite quarries

Or when the supply was short

Harvested from graveyards

In Yunnan or Guangzhou

 

Used as ballast for the sailing

Junks and left overboard

In the Parian in exchange for loot

And silver (which became the ballast

On the way back) they were paved

Into the caminos for carromatas

 

The characters are actual names

Of the dead we are told—their

Stories now untold—except perhaps

As strange runic requiems underfoot

And the old lesson that we also

Build our cities on tombstones

 

 

Marne Kilates

16 July 2016

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