Tuesday 11 May 2010

Stairs



Each block of stone is chosen and cut from the earth,
Dressed and placed by hands bruised and aching,
Built into a cascading wall of rocks to make
A fall whose proportion fits the measured tread
Of all who pass and repass:
A mountain of graded crystal carried to form
Infinite potentials, energies locked with mortar
Giving our legs the power of flight.

I thought that I would speak to each stone,
Extract from its impassive face the truths
Grown through tectonic assault and skeletal collapse;
Offer my own energies in a trade,
Rub off a little skin in an erosion of all sense:
Donate breath, transfer heat, spend time upon.
In descent life is spent, born high then washed
Into the ocean like a grain of sand.