—Wythe County, Virginia: 1807

Freefall perfects the form. A fire
roars at the tower’s height, turns

lead molten, moon-faced. It slips
through copper sieve, each drop

pulled into sphere by descent
through a limestone column, walls

thicker than a woman’s arm
is long. It drops through shadow

above the riverside, bank and cliff
extending the dive, through the hill

& red dirt tunnel below, to land
steaming in the buried kettle. Admire

it now, the polished shine, for it
must journey down again, plummeting

through the breath & blood –
navigate the flesh to seek the skull’s

brittle casket, end the fragile hour,
& drag back to earth its native ore.