an altar arrived in the broken yard behind the empty house

i saw it from my roof

and people came out at night with the fireflies 

to drink beer and stand around it

talk about it

to think about it

to be quiet

& call their dogs back when they run off

it is just good to watch them talk

and to see their arm movements as they try to explain

what was the origin of this altar?

one waves his left arm at the disorganized pile of bricks

and sweeps it across the lay of the yard

ending at the altar

he explains it

and it explains itself with its own peaks and stacked dirty red bricks

and concrete slabs rested against themselves

holding each other up