Go inside a stone / That would be my way. / Let somebody else become a dove / Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth. / I am happy to be a stone. / From the outside the stone is a riddle: / No one knows how to answer it. / Yet within, it must be cool and quiet / Even though a cow steps on it full weight, / Even though a child throws it in a river; / The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed / To the river bottom / Where the fishes come to knock on it / And listen. / I have seen sparks fly out / When two stones are rubbed, / so perhaps it is not dark inside after all; / Perhaps there is a moon shining/ From somewhere, as though behind a hill / Just enough light to make out / The strange writings, the star-charts / On the inner walls.
Stone - Charles Simic
