a quartz cluster

six-sided, by no committee. the prisms grew toward one another in the dark of a fissure and reached this exact arrangement without anyone watching. that they happened at all is the part to keep.

kept beside the mica, since they once shared a wall. catches the lamp the way the amber does, but coldly. a stone for the marking of time; a smaller cousin in every watch.

tap it against the flint in the dark and a small spark answers. it is the spark, not the quartz, that keeps the older role.