Chalk
One easily identifiable biochemical limestone is chalk. Chalk is a soft, porous rock made up of microscopic marine organisms who gather their secrets in deposits along the southeast shores of England. Long ago, in a time of two moons and no stars, a woman named Woolf, after her love of secrets, walked into the ocean and gathered fragments of chalk in her pockets. As she emerged from the water, the chalk bled from her dress, streaming like long fingers, white letters in the blue, midnight waves. One of the two moons caught a glimpse, dropped his wave-harnessing reins, and stared with all his shine. There he read a message for someone who could not answer. The moon searched for the scribe with no avail, and just before taking hold of his reins, a howl scattered the sky. The un-harnessed moon shattered and sifted like chalk into a galaxy of a thousand stars.
Earth
consumes more
than you
can know
born in 4004 B.C
a tangled rhizome—
predicted?
—like bird feet
Published in the Denver Quarterly
