by J.S. Porter
(for frances & my father)
a stone garden, a stone table, a bowl of stones
stubborn as stone, as loyal, as steadfast
stone: you can chip it, but you can’t kill it
still, like stone
stone’s shadow: cold, self-absorbed, a non-breeder
stone: put it on your finger, put it on your grave
immortal as stone, a muted howl against the eclipsing dark
river stone, sea stone, field stone: markers of time
the stone poets: yeats and jeffers, herbert and popa
the stone sculptors: brancusi and noguchi, epstein and moore
stepping stones, skipping stones; primers against amnesia
would you lie with me in a bed of stone
father’s stone: dark, smooth, eternal
- published in Hammered Out, May 2004