Your favorite stone is sandstone, the kind tilt
with seven skins all over. You caught their
bodies, whole bodies built
with second-hand sediment / carried by water
and wind-turned-smoke and Marlboro Reds. Through
the mantle, you were a good daughter.
Someone else had to dig it out. Swollen shut in situ.
The scientists found a full-bodied rock after only 35 years of inertion.
Supersonic is a good word for malignancy. I think I knew
it when you wrapped the gash in your striped shirt.
I tried to write it holy, write it clean but no stigmata
chases the neck with that much dirt.
The time we drove out to Nevada,
you stopped the car
and pressed your back against the strata.
You said their layers went farther
than yours, but you said this crust
tripled over just like the ridge of your scar.
We drove back with the windows down, just
speeding and kicking up the dust.