QUARTER

Spotted a silver quarter
on a January sidewalk –
“Wow! It’s usually a penny.”
It felt cold in both
my hand and my pocket.
Wondering: did the inventor
of the battery think about
how stones hold cold,
how stones hold heat,
like my laundry in a pile
on my bed three hours
after I take it out of the dryer
and it’s still so warm?
How does it do that?
So too a heated argument
or a cold comment
that lays there
on the sidewalk
of my soul for hours –
sometimes for winter weeks,
sometimes for the longest time.
Why?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2010