Cement

“As though Achilles had to think he lived In some Olympian age, Schliemann put Him down to the middle-to-late Bronze, Jazz, rockets, acid, and the Internet

Can’t be much of what the backhoe bites. No, our best material was just Rome’s: This hydrate silicate, stable under Vast compression, weak to tensile loads

But easily reinforced with steel bars. Pure forms of any shape the eye could stand Poured out like water, held up like rock. Do watch your step on this scrap of land:

Our works were fine, but not always true, And we doubt the ground they lift is even. In our defense, we wished no more than you, Some hardy things for our careless children.”