Siblings in stone

after Paul Celan, ‘Confidence’

Stone ribs a heart. They 

are chiselled, each by weather 

and ground’s buried flame. 

Abiding, strands fissure or 

fractures form. What 

strange eye – that does 

not delve, lash to lash –

softens, to slow time.

Mineral breathes. Atom to

atom, a conversation flutters,

includes beyond harm

with each pulse – the satellite,

the mortar, the microscopic

chip – a sibling urge

already bonded to a before

that was itself without us.

Still, an eye unspeaking

donates a single lash

locked into stone, to work it

for mason – slight, delicate –

kneeling to the lamp that

swings in the iris. A tiny

pick uncovers kinship,

extracted in those mega pits 

of greed, re-seams a sorority

in tear-leached stone.