Friday, October 24, 2008






Of Water and Stone

Behind stone walls the waters are pent
The stones are earthly demigods bent
On saving us all in their ghastly image
Of Carl and Joseph and Vladimir’s lineage
Those demigods fear that each man might think
For a moment to fetch his own water to drink
Lifted and cupped within each man’s own hands
So decreed it is that the waters be dammed
Each man is to get the same number of drops
Even those who are growing the crops
A few are more equal, like those at the top
But one thing is certain, the free-flowing must stop
So parted and parceled, parsed and partitioned
The water is clouded and roundly conditioned
As children are born in the dam’s shadow, gray
They age and they labor knowing no other way
Still the demigods fear for they know deep inside
The destroyer of stone in water abides
What fathers drank deeply, is dreamt of by their grandsons
To inspire their kin to seek out stone masons
And open a crack that each man may be blessed
The power of water on stone does the rest

Be well,
Huckleberry