cooled flow · column
no. 9 · st-coll.
dark, dense, ordinary on the beach where you found it and extraordinary on the desk. one of a hundred million cobbles cut from the columns that the cliff above shed into the sea over a long, indifferent argument.
kin to the obsidian, though they cooled at different speeds and forgot one another. heavier than the brick by a third, denser than anything in the kitchen drawer. it sits where you put it; it does not move.
holds rain on its surface as small black mirrors. if you sleep with one in your hand, the hand is colder in the morning. nobody has ever explained this.
field-note — i tapped it. it does not sound like a stone. it sounds like a stone covering something.