Yusef Komunyakaa - Believing in Iron lyrics

The hills my brothers & I created Never balanced, & it took years To discover how the world worked We could look at a tree of blackbirds & tell you how many were there But with the scrap dealer Our math was always off Weeks of lifting & grunting Never added up to much But we couldn't stop Believing in iron Abandoned trucks & cars Were held to the ground By thick, nostalgic fingers of vines Strong as a dozen sharecroppers We'd return with our wheelbarrow Groaning under a new load Yet tiger lilies lived better In their languid, August domain Among paper & Coke bottles Foundry smoke erased sunsets & we couldn't believe iron Left men bent so close to the earth As if the ore under their breath Weighed down the gray sky Sometimes I dreamt how our hills Washed into a sea of metal How it all became an anchor For a warship or bomber Out over trees with blooms Too red to look at