mujer de piedra
Light brown on one side
textured and as flat and thin as anything
Feels like I could snap it in half
I try to
because we don’t always understand strength
Tiny and peach, marbled white
smooth as glass
The first two stones I pick up and keep in-hand
Rubbing and comforting myself
with their tone and weight
So many are familiar and related
A lot I need to view in the sun and briefly remove from the shade
Many keep their full selves unseen under the fine silt
full of deer tracks that I like to follow
A lot need to be dusted of sand
like my body on any day we meet
I sit on this stretch of dirt for the stones
for the adolescent ladybug on my jeans
For the fine gravel and brittle clumps of grasses
that look like high desert
I can feel the shape and color of each one
Scattered around me like confetti
A stone for every mood I’ve ever felt
Every fight after dark and morning smile
of a lifetime
could be right here
in the view around my legs
Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to this patch off the side of the path
Full of stand-ins for every act and
every one to come
That they’re all here together
That I’m here as one
Isn’t that the intrigue
Isn’t that why you’re here
To see all the little bits together
In the river valley
I stand and my entire universe
disappears in a blink
Five feet above
may as well be 2,000 miles
Every detail you thought you knew
is only clear at eye level or
side by side
The sun’s put my neck on fire
But I won’t move
away from these, my
pieces yet
I pick burs out of my thighs
with a burning, bleeding finger
But all the tiny crystalline specs around me
need to be felt today
Yesterday a woman who’s never met me
called me primal
and enchanting
Which is what I might call this swath
Holding me in warmth and
the unknown ahead