A tumble-rush, whitewater roar, the river races, mad
as its name, over cobble
and ledge. Kingfisher rattling overhead, I wander
a jumble of boulders beached at its edge –
granite hump-backed, sun-bleached, streaked
in ochre and dun, glint of quartz.
Amid this wild scatter, a rock the shape of my heart –
two lobes tapered to a point,
tumbled, humbled by water, grit, the hone of time,
ground down. Once jagged, sharp,
now weathered, worn smooth. A heart I can hide
in a pocket, hold in my hand.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 20, Issue 3.
Suzanne Rogier Marshall taught English to middle school students for nearly forty years, publishing several professional articles and a book on teaching poetry. Her poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Heartwood Literary Journal, Up North Literary Journal, Portage Magazine, Watershed Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and other journals and anthologies. She is the author of Blood Knot, a chapbook published by Porkbelly Press in 2015.
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