Dredging up the mud and rocks

 

like tiny ants they swarm up and down the rocky slope,

carrying small loads of wet sand and debris to

the mother ship, the big front loader that pours

streams of earth into a huge dump truck, its motor

humming in the still-warm autumn afternoon.

they move so quickly, one can hardly capture them

in the camera, their conveyer belts rattling down

into the creek bed so the river can flow again

in its original stream bed some feet lower than

where they dig now, hurrying up and down the slope

like tiny ants, amazing how quickly they ferry

their loads.