A Box of Rocks

By John I. Blair

“Dumb as a box of rocks”
Is a byword for stupidity
I’m not sure works.

I have a box of rocks –
Sandstone, basalt, quartz,
Aventurine and agate –

Tinted black and white,
Green and gold and red,
Not a brain among them

Nor can they speak
With voices, hence
They’re truly dumb.

And yet the basalt cobble,
Still as night,
Once yielded me a poem

Of the beach, the sea,
Volcanic fire,
Gaia in my hand;

So now I wonder
What the others
Lock within.

©2014 John I. Blair