Glass
Karen R. Porter
Simple glass
used to be sand
turned fluid,
fashioned
into a comely shape
by fire and hands.
How many grains
make up a glass?
Does it remember
its lifeless life
before this change?
Was it smashed by
relentless waves
on a beach where
quartz transmutes?
Did it tear down
a mountain’s back,
sloughed off as mud
after a flood?
Does it know
it once reigned
inside the earth,
hard and safe?
And how long
after the shatter
til it goes home
agains transformed?
