i

rest your cheek in its lee

where the night cannot find you

ii

carve your face in the soft mountainside

watch your nose crumble

your eyes & mouth become dust

iii

the art of skimming

unachievable as an equation

the pebble lies on my palm

iv

I left a trail of pebbles long ago –

did you collect them

build the tallest cairn?

v

outline my body where it falls

lay me under a blanket of shale

vi

how did you carry those tablets of stone

down the steep, treacherous path?

Did you pause, unwrap food

from linen folds, take a sinful bite?

vii

the road to hell is paved with gravel –

it will find its way

into the most tightly laced shoe

viii

I wake from a dream

of blood and chanting

the taste of standing stone

ix

I weigh my poems down

with a hagstone –

a life lived slant

x

in a cabinet

a piece of moon

jagged & dark

one day I will steal it

inhale its pale heart

xi

sometimes I lift a mirror to you

afraid of your Gorgon stare

xii

is stone still warm without my touch?

does it erode

only when my back is turned?

xiii

torn from the earth’s belly

newborn

Sue Burge