Dialogue of Soul & Stone

I was talking to a rock
and I said, “Stone”—
I talk to them like that—I said,
“what makes people feel extraneous?”

To which the rock in its own idiom
replied, “Extraneous’s ass!
You think you got it bad.
Try igneous extrusion.
Try a little freeze and thaw.
Try glaciation.
Stand out in the weather for ten thousand years.
We’ll talk extraneous.”

One thing about rocks:
they cut you half an inch of slack
but never. That’s why guys like me
idealize them. I said, “Sage”—
I laid it on a little thick,
this rock I’m talking to,
it’s not much bigger than a Chiclet,
but I don’t want to give offense—
so I said, “Sage, what
should the human species do?”

To which the rock said nothing,
but he got that look. You know:
they’re thinking to themselves,
“Drop dead.”

—Brooks Haxton