Tag: rock quarry

Poems

Overheard at the Scale House

ROMPoetry
Rock samples in the scale house

What a dick!
Pug a beast*
You’re on the wrong channel.
I think I can. I think I can.
. . . new set of handcuffs
That’s what her name was.
I think I just dropped 2 tickets
Down the hole.
Dispatch? . . . Dispatch? . . . Dispatch?
Need to pick up some riff-raff*
Down in the hole
You’re just psycho with a capital ‘S.’
Don’t aggravate the pug!*

–Shaun Perkins

Note: Most popular rock at the quarry is called “pugged aggregate base.” Another item that trucks frequently come in for is “rip-rap,” 12”-24” boulders like you see under bridges or close to waterways.

Poems

A Visitor to the Quarry

ROMPoetry

Limestone dust scoots across the road
And filters into the already dying June grass.
The peacock appears at the quarry windows,
Not looking in, not looking at the trucks,
Not engaged in any way with human life,
Abiding in its own peacock world
Of green velvet and sweeping coattails,
Gold-tipped cigarette holder and champagne
Glass, muddled fruit of peach and apricot. Continue reading “A Visitor to the Quarry” →

Poems

Dispatching at the Rock Quarry

ROMPoetry

The trucks are either white or red.
Alliance, the white ones say.
Cowboy, the red ones.
An occasional blue one appears,
All driven by men except one,
whose driver calls in her mission
and adds, Have a nice day.
Pugged aggregate base. Rip rap.
Screenings. Bedding. Crusher run.
The language of rock.
Make a bridge, build a road,
Lay a foundation. It all starts
from a hole in the ground.

–Shaun Perkins