Is it quite fair to say dirt's only brown?
Are there not other colors there? — Look down.
That brown is multifaceted and could
Be broken down to charcoal, chocolate, wood;
And as my shovel breaks the earth apart
I see within it all the stuff of art,
Find flecks of yellow, red, and green and grey,
The painter’s palette and the sculptor’s clay.
Look closer still and see there all you can —
No less than all the stuff to make a man
Awaiting but creative hands to form
And Heaven’s breath to animate and warm.
Drew Nathaniel Keane (PhD St And) teaches in the English Department at Georgia Southern University. His verse has appeared in Lighten Up, Better Than Starbucks, Earth & Altar, and The Slumbering Host (Little Gidding Press 2019). More of his work is available at drewkeane.com