Interim Archeology

By Tracy Powers

When traveling past dark
In familiar and private lands
I have a curious past time - 
A unique fascination with businesses 
Dimmed, and shuttered
For an evening’s spell
Or a weekend’s time

There, be it city, county
Under rural stars or metropolis lights
And regardless of the intricate method of window dressing
All is alike and equal in the cloak of night
Places bustling and pulsing with life during the day,
Beating strongly with the heartbeat of commerce
Transform to still, vacant artifacts -
Ruins that manifest on workaday schedules 
For mere hours
Only to vanish with the crystalline rays of first light
Telling a tale of everyday archeology 

And you’ll see the marvels of the common world,
Unable to help but to wonder
How does this place seem
When fluorescent lights buzz overhead like an electric beehive
Brimming with excitement and haste
Inside modern labyrinths and pathways?
Arising to the sun, in worship and reverence to an unseen deity
As natives begin to flock to these sacred lands
For the daily rituals of work and market

What secrets lie there in these, the most temporary of ruins -
What mysteries fuel the imagination 
Found in the now-darkened state of these ordinary temples?
And what wonder will be born
While time waits patiently and abides
For the ruins to rise again?

Tracy Powers is based in Oak Ridge, TN, where she lives with her husband and two writing partners (a.k.a, their tabby cats).  In addition to her work being published in a number of online journals, her first poetry collection chapbook ‘The Dragon’s Den’ is currently available on Amazon.com.