what locks go unlocked

All those buried axles
and the road become trail,
become rumor
near slag heaps
and ruined moons,
and the ways forward.

What locks go unlocked
fill up the firelight,
and the ingratitude
of passage
circles three times
in the tall grass
and settles too close
to the old encampments.

In the middle of the night
the treetops and the smokestacks
pivot against starshine;

it's all backward,

the face of the compass spinning
beneath the needle.