Stone Embraces Stone

Stone, with his stone-hard hands,
Tenderly holds a crystal stone, understands,
And says: “Yes, you and I are ill,
Silent and frozen and hauntingly still,
Life, when it left us — from us, within —
Set us, hardened us, sealed us in,
One became clearer than glass in the gaze,
One let all pain flow in dark, stony ways…”

Stone, with his stone-hard hands,
Embraces, speaking: “You will stand.
Fissures and cracks — yes, the void and the dread —
But I will hold you, and keep you instead,
With all the strength of my ore-bearing veins.
Life for you, truly, still yet remains.”
“My dear one, thank you,” answers the crystal’s call,
“I’ll endure, though I’m very tired through it all.”

Stone, with his stone-hard hands,
Embraces — deep in the cliff’s clenched lands.
One flashes mica, thin and bright,
The other casts a many-colored light,
Like little boats on water — up to vaults above,
To a world where there's no happiness, but freedom and love,
Where pain is plenty, and where beatings were true,
But where the dreams are all rosy and blue,
Diamond-bright.

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Thanks to Leah Borovoi for improving the text.