Rock Salt

Rock salt,

polished-bronze.

Your colors are black and silver, gold and mica-schist.

You are very old,

and description of you must be succinct.

You have become too sharp

in my heart (black-lit).

When I breathe in

you entangle my thoughts.

When I exhale, you lodge yourself

like sharp pebbles in the soft parts of my heart.

I am sad like a storm

brooding over trees,

fuming soft like clouds,

(releasing rain over fields).

You have covered your mouth onto mine,

like a death-lid,

faint taste of blood-metal in the rain.

I asked to be struck,

Thorough-core,

Lit-match

(now I am filled with sparks).

I remember only shininess and dark—

through opals, grey glittering gems,

Glance-lit.

You are shapeshifter:

Dark smoke,

Written-on,

Polished stone.

I am embers ground,

(Shavings curled in the fire),

Black sand then glass--

rock-peeled--

stone-schist--

(black alchemist).                         (4-2010) elg