Stone Outside the Lapidary

by Kenneth Pobo (July 2024)

 

Not being noticed has some pleasures. Dull conversations pass above me. I keep low.
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People don’t come to see me. I’m not polished and rare like stones inside, kept from dust. I take on whatever the weather gives. Sun and rain try to do their worst—I’m invincible.
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I’ll outlive these visitors. A pampered life’s airless. The heat and cooling unnatural. Better to feel early morning chill and watch red maple leaves cartwheel over dead dandelion bodies.
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Most stones you only see if one gets in your shoe. Then you curse. Like we did that on purpose. You step on our invisibility and move on.
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Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. In addition to Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel zine and micro press), recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Uneven Steven (Assure Press), Sore Points (Finishing Line Press) Lilac and Sawdust (Meadowlark Press) and Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books). Raylene And Skip is forthcoming from Wolfson Press.

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