Those Hard Years

       One wonders
from which direction came
    all that hardness,
whether from some inner
              imperative

        the years
accreted their durable rind,
    or whether heat
and gravity—both being
              unkind—

       encased those
years in a sort
    of quartz-like shell.
Can the disturbances be
              traced,

       can what
befell those hard years
    be reconstructed from
furrows grooving and pits
              pocking

       their outer
crust? And would unlocking
    them turn them
to desiccated fistfuls of
              dust?

       Such uncertainty
surrounds those hard years
    we may never
understand them, which might
              ultimately

       be good:
some hardnesses protect what
    softnesses are left
and overall work best
              ununderstood.

Stephen Kampa is the author of four collections of poetry. He appeared in Best American Poetry 2018 and 2024. He teaches at Flagler College.