STUCK 

LIKE A STONE 

Poem for Today - March 28, 2014

A STONE IS NOBODY'S

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it. Made it a prisoner.
           Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it
           for the rest of his life.
His mother asked why.
He said, because it's held captive, because it is
           the captured.
Look, the stone is asleep, she said, it does not know
           whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and
           the stone are mother and daughter,
           it is you who are getting old. The stone
           is only sleeping.
But I caught it, mother, it is mine by conquest, he said.
A stone is nobody's, not even its own. It is you
           who are conquered; you are minding 
           the prisoner, which is yourself, 
           because you are afraid to go out, she said.
Yes, yes, I am afraid, because you never loved me,
           he said.
Which is true, because you have always been to me
           as the stone is to you, she said.

(c) Russell Edson