it is a stone
with a line of eight holes
seven holes within a lozenge below
on top of five holes in a line
beside a triangle of three holes
it probably has a name
- sum - eli - je suis - tu et -
everything does
but I shall name it - stone - wiv 'oles -
I try to interest my children
saying 'this was carved before the pyramids
were built'
as if somehow
they can grasp the wonderment
of a person four thousand years ago
climbing a landscape
probably not dissimilar to this
- though with ice - perhaps -
- and maybe mammoth and hippo -
to make a mark
a testament
to say - jeg er - soy - dwi - nork wuz ere -
but they are more interested
in standing on it
so that when I try to take a picture
their feet are in the frame
- ich bin - get orf - schlemiel -
and as we wander away
they paddling shoeless in the mud
I imagine the holes filled with fat
and some sort of wick
for an illuminated promenade
no doubt ending in bloody sacrifice
on one of the large rocks
I doubt those meeting their maker
were told
- as my children now are -
'if you can get up, you can get down'
though perhaps there was
a similar form of taunting
as I climb up to where they cannot reach
perch on the rock and eat wotsits
The Blue Book
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