Structural Integrity

The smell of the basement has changed.

It’s no longer just damp cardboard and lint,

but the heavy, wet pressure of soil.

I found it near the water heater,

a pale, translucent spine of a weed

forcing the concrete to give an inch.

It’s sickly yellow, reaching for the slit

of the window where the dirt is caked thick.

The stone is unmade by something soft and blind.