Geology

I am a rock

I am not steady nor unchanging

My form speaks of a deep time

Time to ripen

Time to grow riches

Time for the precious

To develop from the mundane

Sit with me a hour, look at my face

I am somewhere to meditate

Something to contemplate

 

I am made up of layers

That life has laid on me

Tiny motes of life and time

Drifting downward,

Collecting, compressing,

And floods of material –

Erratics and foreign soils –

All solidify into my strata

Some harder, some softer,

In fine laminations

 

I am a rock

I am shaped by uplifts

Deformed by subductions

Folded back upon myself

Time and again

I develop faults, I suffer falls

Cracks form within me

Pieces break off

And fall far, far down

Into the sea

 

My folds and creases

Map my life and experience

Into my crevices

Creep subtile fluids

They precipitate rare substances

And bright veins of crystal

Because I am worn

Life can cling to me

The gaps in me give room

For gems to germinate