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Standing Stone

large rock jutting into the water. A person stands on the rock's edge looking out into a bright, cloudy horizon
 
Sky shines overhead, a bluebird’s egg. 
Starling flaunts its speckled iridescence,
yellow beak. The starved grass 
begins to green.
 
I found this standing stone
in a West Virginia river,
brought it with me through three moves,
planted it in three different yards,
among mayapples
now spreading their wings.
 
I expect to stay.
I tend this little plot,
welcome the skunks, raccoons,
occasional fox or fisher.
Part of me wants to see
what is coming;
part of me is glad 
I’ll be gone.
 
A friend who 
“doesn’t believe in Darwin”
roots her sense of sacredness
in the body of an ancient Jew.
I do not think I will persist
after my body dies.
The stone, once mud 
at the bottom of the ocean
pressed into rock by time,
will outlast me.
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