I Am This Stone

Jason Cabitac

"Two Piece Reclining Figure 5" by Henry Moore.

"Two Piece Reclining Figure 5" by Henry Moore.

I am this stone

that rises from red dust

and gathers the four winds.

 

This stone is a sleeping eye

that awakens to hold, in image,

the burned glow

of distant, internal stars.

Slowly it slouches onward

inch by inch like a hesitant glance —

a stranger in this desert,

alone among barren trees

and unfamiliar sand.

 

The heat of this new day

rotates and spirals down with ease

until I am lifted and pulled up,

arms spread out,

free from the chains of gravity.

And in midair

I see my reflection as a black void —

subtle yet powerful,

humming with capacity and desire

to devour my senses,

this trembling identity.

 

In holy rapture I float and am tamed;

my throat yearns for the waters below.

Slowly I am emptied of all I once called me

and become but a vapor, a whisper of mystery.

 

I am pierced by light and fall

deep into an unseen chasm.

Such strange darkness I now behold.

This becomes that

and all that was and shall be

echoes in unison, the ancient moan.

 

An eternity passes.

I have become longing itself.

O my light, why have you forsaken me?

Am I so shameful, empty, incomplete?

I have taken the sun for granted,

love once lived fully within my heart.

 

Suddenly a sound —

the hiss of a snake.

It crawls nigh from far off,

years and years away.

But surely it comes

to bear this heavy stone

towards Bethlehem

to be born anew

in a profane nativity scene.

 

My heart shudders and I wait.

My poppy mind soars.

 

* Jason Cabitac is a poet, stone sculptor, and student currently living in Boulder, Colorado.