Caroline

She is the
Mistress of
The Balcones
Research Center
Archeological records
And I am bringing her a piece
Of scatter collected at the ranching
Site at Valenzuela Creek in Dimmit
County near Catarina and the old
Peloncillo pyramid a remnant of
Some idle time paleo or last
Few hundred years a small
Carved rock turned up as
The land was disturbed
When a dozer gauged
Up the soli for a chain
Link fence to protect
The Valenzuela site
Now the carved
Rock sits on
Her desk
As she
Does
Not like
Any site
Plundered
But comprehends
This carving would be
Lost if not recorded
So she marks it as
Valenzuela site
And files it on
My report of
A ranch fort
Against the
Comanches
And the Anglos
But abandoned in
Turbulence of the 1830s
On the Texas Nueces River
To the Rio Grande border frontier.
What was the carving you
Wonder but all I can
Say is that as she
Filed the stone
She looked
Up at me
Smiling.