100

Immortal and dense
This stone sits heavy in my palm

In your eternal travels
How many eons have you seen
How many species have you heard
How many oceans have you smelled

The stone turns over and over
Revealing its secrets to me

Sightless sentry sleeping
Unaware and tumbled smooth
Is immortality such a gift
If there is nothing to count it by

Writ between the grains of sediment
A cosmic bargain presents itself

How many years would you give up
To see would you give up a million
To smell and hear another billion
What would you give for 100 years of awareness

The stone and I are the same
I put it in my pocket happy with my 100

-T. Weeks
(A response to “Who Learns My Lesson Complete?”)