ThereseHalscheid.com

Who could know

such impact in earthly actions -

how, when shadows

came over Carrara

while darkness lengthened

the depth of the horseshoe quarry

as night dimmed the veined marble

carried on throughout

the white streaked hills

of Carrara up over its chalky cliffs,

that the sound

of a bright continuous sea

far below

falling forward

was not so much the sea touching

not the sea touching Carrara

but you walking,

you in the valley

beginning to scale above cypress,

your eyes ripe as washed olives,

your boots raising your weight

onto cliffs, in Carrara

reaching that heightened place

where soon a line of fiery light

will strike, your muscled arms

will swing at this

very gold sun

igniting specks in the granite

and the soul

in your chiseled body, knowing

which stone to take.