TO STONE

1.
As it turns, I am amazed
at the simplicity of it all,
the lack of pain, the ease
of metamorphosis. Without
that river-rush beating ever too fast,
ever too eager for change,
there is peace.

Doctors would shake their heads
in wonder, mumble into recorders
if they knew.

2.
The color gives me pause,
a reason to ponder,
a reason to get up
and make coffee.
Is it the grey of his skin,
or the once white-grey
of the bathroom tiles
or brown, like the stains
on his father's underwear, which he hid
in his coat pocket one drunken morning-
after. That was the day I got my baby
away from that madness.

3.
Sometimes madness follows us.
I like to think it black. Like dead things,
rotten and leaking secrets
we will never understand.
I've seen some shot with silver,
incandescent in the noonday sun.

4.
As it turns, it changes me into
a thing able to clean tiles
and brew a nice French Roast.
I hope it will be black,
shot through with a glimmer.

About Lori Williams:

Lori Williams is a born and bred Brooklynite who “makes a living” as a legal assistant in the publishing field.  That said, poetry has always been and will always be her life’s work.  Her poems have been published in scores of print and on-line publications including; Melic Review, Snow Monkey, New Zoo Poetry Review, Fairfield Review, Avatar Review, Red River Review and Poems Niederngasse. She loves animals, honesty and cheese.