Seven Stones
Today I picked up
seven stones
resembling birds and orphans
in the dead sand.
I looked at them
as if they were offerings
of uncommon times,
as if they were
seven endangered travelers.
Like a sorceress, I came near
and very gently
moistened them
against my cheek.
I wanted
to be seven stones
inside my skin,
to be, for an instant, very round and smooth
so somebody would pick me up
and make clefts in my sides
with the damp voice of the wind.
I wanted
you to pick me up,
to kiss me,
so I could be a river stone
in your estuary mouth.
I keep the seven stones
in my pocket.
They make a mound
in my hand
and in my stories
of absences,
a mossy sound.
Copyright Credit: Marjorie Agosín, "Seven Stones" from Sargasso. Copyright © 1993 by Marjorie Agosín. Reprinted by permission of White Pine Press, www.whitepine.org.