They cut the stone beyond the hill Miles from where the walls would rise No iron sang against the mountain No sparks beneath the eastern sky Men came back with dust in their hair Talking less than when they left One swore the rock had shifted before the chisel touched its edge They laughed at him Till three more said the same The measurements kept changing Not much An inch here A hand there Enough to make the master stop and measure twice Then once again He drew the line scraped it away Said, "Build around it." Nobody asked why That's how men stayed employed in those days By sundown there was a space beneath the floor Too narrow for a chamber Too deep for a grave And every lamp carried near it burned lower No hammer heard No iron raised Just fitted stone and borrowed days They built the walls exactly as told But left one place the plans wouldn't hold No hammer heard Still something knew Every stone they lowered into place One worker disappeared in summer They found his tools lined up clean Sand brushed from the handles like he'd planned on coming back His brother said he'd been dreaming Same staircase seven nights straight Always going down Always waking before he reached the bottom The foreman told him "Stop telling people that." So he did For almost a week Then he started drawing the stairs. They burned the pages He drew them again Same number of steps Same turn at the end Same door where no door had been built No hammer heard No iron raised Just fitted stone and borrowed days They built the walls exactly as told But left one place the plans wouldn't hold No hammer heard Still something knew Every stone they lowered into place SEAL THE JOINTS MARK NOTHING LEAVE NO NAME FOR WHAT YOU FOUND CUT THE STONE TURN IT IN LET THE FACE LOOK TOWARD THE GROUND IF THEY ASK FOUNDATION IF THEY PRESS BAD EARTH IF THEY HEAR IT TELL THEM STONE SETTLES Years later the Temple stood Gold in the morning white stone in the sun Pilgrims looked up Kings looked in Nobody looked down Except the men who knew why one section of floor was thicker than the rest And why the oldest among them never stood directly over it No hammer heard No iron raised The house went up the silence stayed Perfect lines from wall to wall Except the place that swallowed them all No hammer heard But under Moriah something learned the weight of stone The initiate closes the old drawing. "Who made this?" A long pause. "We don't know." "And what's underneath it?" Another pause. "That's why you're here."
