Polishing the Petoskey Stone
Lee Carter provided this poem to accompany yesterday's post:
Polishing the Petoskey Stone
Petoskey Stone (Hexagonaria) – a petrified colony coral 350 million years old, found on beaches in Michigan
My friend says, “Spit on it, and rub
the surface. See the pattern?”
In its hammock of lines I lift the pebble
the color of a rain cloud, cradle it
a thousand miles. Holding
the steering wheel in one hand, the grey
oval curved to my other palm, we move,
a ripple across the map to Kansas, while
I rub its softness in ellipses
Against a rough shore of denim and wool.
The second day it starts
to shine like glycerine soap. As I buff it
smooth, the print rises to the surface –
the silk stone honeycombed with
eyes opening from a long sleep
between lashes of fine spines. Born
eons ago in a warm sea over
Michigan, buried in a long, restless
dream, now the old coral wakes
to the waves of cloth.
Luci Shaw, from Polishing the Petoskey Stone, Selected Poems, Regent College Publishing (Vancouver, BC), 2003, p.8
Polishing the Petoskey Stone
Petoskey Stone (Hexagonaria) – a petrified colony coral 350 million years old, found on beaches in Michigan
My friend says, “Spit on it, and rub
the surface. See the pattern?”
In its hammock of lines I lift the pebble
the color of a rain cloud, cradle it
a thousand miles. Holding
the steering wheel in one hand, the grey
oval curved to my other palm, we move,
a ripple across the map to Kansas, while
I rub its softness in ellipses
Against a rough shore of denim and wool.
The second day it starts
to shine like glycerine soap. As I buff it
smooth, the print rises to the surface –
the silk stone honeycombed with
eyes opening from a long sleep
between lashes of fine spines. Born
eons ago in a warm sea over
Michigan, buried in a long, restless
dream, now the old coral wakes
to the waves of cloth.
Luci Shaw, from Polishing the Petoskey Stone, Selected Poems, Regent College Publishing (Vancouver, BC), 2003, p.8