came to its sleeping place
here in the bed of an old sea,
They sank hand and tool into
soil where the bubble of springs
gave off hope, fresh and long,
where they married their sweat
the blessing of the water.
They made houses of limestone
and adobe, locked together blocks
descended from shells and coral,
houses of the bones of the water,
And they swallowed the life
of the lime in the water,
which grew strong as the water,
All along the counties they lay,
mouth to mouth with the water,
fattened in the smile of the water,
water flushed pure through the
spine and ribs of the birth of life,