The flagstones have been uprooted, branches
from underground and leaves scattered
in all directions.  Today, after a fierce rain, stones
in the sun turn red and blue - shapes of water

disappearing.

Jane likes to lift the stones, to see the ants and
other strange creatures who burrow for a living.  Their
legs, heads, antennae swirl erratically in a panic
of sensing - the loose wires of a civilization coming apart.

We look on.