The Pressure of Dirt Under My Nails

My fingernails are starting to get clean
The pressure of dirt under them is gone

this makes me uneasy

i have walked 10 blocks searching
for a place to sink my hands into
the earth

between my feet and soil
the concrete teases me with traces
of dirt from other places

i lay down with my face against
the warm cement and wait for
it to melt

i am asked to move by a man in a uniform
my fingernails are aching
i don't move

i hear a beautiful, high pitched clicking noise
looking up into a beam of light a young
man asks to take my hand.