As Simple as a Stone

 

A ruby of medium red

where some long ago dragon bled.

Imagine the fight:

The dragon slung his head

and there,

each precious drop from him,

became jewelry; a blood red gem.

 

Or an oval of medium blue:

a sapphire, from a witch’s brew.

She stole a piece of the sky

leaving a hole that we decry.

 

Like water solidified into stone, a diamond

A crystal boldly imagined itself beyond ice:

 a wonder, a pebble, a promise,

        A simple symbol,

 a woman’s bright future on a young girl’s hand.

 

Of them all, my love, an oval of opal,

Disneyland in a ring. A lovely fairytale in solidified glitter:

     “Once upon a time, this rock was shed in fairy dust

when bees hummed bass as fairies sang until the magic gummed together

into a stone, the song saved for all time, now worn on someone’s hand.

When we invent the iPod to play these rock songs

there will no longer be wars, no longer be hunger or sadness.

gemstones are magic, you see.”

 

Like granite

Buildings that last forever.

Marble

Where philosophers or senators raised their hands,

hard to imagine these buildings still stand…

      “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” their sandals upon stone.

The words somehow forever recorded there, perhaps,

If we could find the needle intricate enough to make these stones speak.

 

A rock, a simple thing,

but yet a playground for silly minds

who would make up stories,

with and without rhymes,

or spend fortunes to decorate

their hands and necks

with stones of blue, of green, or of fairy specks.

Reviews

[Gandré]

I loved the last stanza....you said quite the message with this poem. colors as such don't exist in the world, they exist in the eye and brain of the beholder, objects reflect many different wavelengths and light but light waves would have no color, so it is not true what we see. there is no absolute truth. loved your poem.

[Ed Hart]

some people decorate the outside; some people decorate the inside...now, you're a gem...

[Fabian G. Franklin]

And this is worth diamonds, priceless actually. Dragon's blood and fairy dust, such wonderful imagery in this piece and the longing for social harmony as well shining in ruby red, sapphire blue and emerald green, lovely.