A Hole in a Road

Every 3 months there's a pothole.
The city crew who knew what to do
filled the hole with dirt,
adding an asphalt patch.
(A hill where a crater was before)
Underneath the road, the limestone,
the karst, water pesters the foundation.
It takes 6 weeks to erode the dirt.
The patchwork cracks in 8 weeks more,
leaving a new, slightly different opening.

4 times a year the work is required.
Moral strictness? Severe simplicity?
We decided enough for 2 times was plenty to spend.
28 weeks in a row, or evenly divided?
(what a horrible thing the marketplace of thought and persuasion)
Now half the year there is a hole, and half there is a mound.
If there were a better idea than wash-away dirt
the condition of required permanence might never
have crept into the crevasse of karst.