bodies crumble, like
quarry rock
like old road
cancerous chisels, picking
paltry pebbles away
they will build basements
and new streets
they will press it into steel
for railways and cars
for progress

this is important work;
taking the right of way, through
her body
by the bureaucrat
who gave her lymph nodes
then crept in at night, in crevices
to lay blood cell mines
and steal them back, in
pocket-sized pieces

bodies crumble, like
rocks and roads
like politicians, caught
with pockets full of reasons
and a press release

that's government for you