Stacking Stones by Daniel Rasmus

I I stack the stones by size until they rise to five feet like donuts stacked on a stick why can't I ask you force myself into your eyes like I force the rocks to obey gravity. II Let me love you like the rocks love each other smooth faces pressed together unbreathing their imperfections save them. III We count them and hope for an answer rake the sand around them make them uneven we hear their talk in our sleep. IV The rocks are not so much rocks different colors bathe the sand we stack the color and raise a myth when we retell it. V We stack fire the fire heats the stone a single bird chirps in a tree we can never find it it burns our ears. VI The caption reads like a prescription stack the stones like this we do not read instructions. VII The stones clank a kind of music music that can kill we listen to our heart beats when we dream the sound of the stone kills our sleep. VIII There is no gravity when we dream rocks of fire, stone the bird has learned to sound like a rock he answers us we hear what we want to hear.

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