(no subject)

[evil-owl.livejournal.com]

Consolation for Tamar

on the occasion of her breaking
an ancient pot

You know I am no archeologist, Tamar,
And that to me it is all one dust or another.
Still, it must mean something to survive the weather
Of the Ages- earthquake, flood and war-

Only to shatter in your very hands.
Perhaps it was gravity, or maybe fated-
Although I wonder if it had not waited
Those years in drawers, aeons in distant lands,

And in your fingers' music, just a little
Was emboldened by your blood, and so forgot
That it was not a rosebud, but a pot,
And, in trying to unfold for you, was brittle.

Alicia E. Stallings