Pebbles

Pebbles

Time smooths rainbow hardness
Of tree basalt, vermilion jasper,
Silvery granite and pale feldspar
With the help of humdrum
But patient jeweler of tides;
Volcano-born, earthquake-quarried,
Heat-cracked, wind-carved,
Death shapes compact among the rocks;
It drifts light as a fractured bone
When the tide uncovers,
It blinks among the smashed shells,
Upset by gulls, bleached by salt and sun
The broken crockery of living things;
An eagle surveys from the upland,
Unsympathetic to the burdens
I have carried here;
The sea would not hug me, so I sit,
Hollow as driftwood, jumbled as pebbles.