Copper Mine Poem by Madhu Kailas

Hollowed earth,
a large reservoir of emptiness.
Deep down where only
the moon can touch
dregs of an empty cup,
static turquoise fluid
of residual copper blood.

Cyclopean machines
crawl like dwarf ants.
Along grooves etched by mortal hands.
Gnaw at rocks,
startled out of deep sleep
to be stripped.

An ancient cave painting
tumbles out of extinction
delineated by squished insect blood
on ochre flats.

Dead insects scrabble out of rocks
on the landscape of our civilisation.