INSIDE A STONE

Poem for Today - January 17, 2014

STONE

Go inside a stone

That would be my way.

Let somebody else become a dove

Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.

I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:

No one knows how to answer it.

Yet within,  it must be cool and quiet

Even though a cow steps on it full weight,

Even though a child throws it in a river;

The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed 

To the river bottom

Where the fishes come to knock on it 

And listen.

I have seen sparks fly out

When two stones are rubbed,

So perhaps it is not dark inside after all,

Perhaps there is a moon shining

From somewhere, as though behind a hill—

Just enough light to make out

The strange writings, the star-charts

On the inner walls.

© Charles Simic [1938- ]

Check out and compare 
this poem with the poem 

for January 9 2014,
 "Locked In".
Thanks to Pat Tyrrell 
who sent me this poem
called, "Stone"..