<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Stone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Go inside a stone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">That would be my way.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Let somebody else become a dove</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I am happy to be a stone.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">From the outside the stone is a riddle:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">No one knows how to answer it.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Yet within, it must be cool and quiet</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Even though a cow steps on it full weight,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Even though a child throws it in a river;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the stone sinks, slow, unperturbed</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To the river bottom</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Where the fishes come to knock on it</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And listen.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I have seen sparks fly out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">When two stones are rubbed,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Perhaps there is a moon shining</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">From somewhere, as though behind a hill–</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Just enough light to make out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The strange writings, the star-charts</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">On the inner walls.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> - Charles Simic</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span style="font-kerning: none;" class="">(</span><span style="color: rgb(54, 54, 54); orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">May 9, 1938-January 9, 2023)</span></div></body></html>