Hagstone

by Robert Borski

Amuletized, it's bone white

and looks like the skull

of a miniature cyclops --

an irregular stone pierced

from one side to the other

(depending on your belief system)

by gimlet time, erosive water,

or as folklore prescribes,

a host of serpents

acid-bathing it in venom,

liquifying a channel.

But mechanism notwithstanding,

for the adept, the stone,

with its fossil peephole,

has a multitude of uses.

As a portal to other worlds,

for example, or to neutralize

hexes; as a bulwark against

nightmares; or even, when

worn monocularly,

as an occult lens -- beware

then, you disguised witch

or fairy trickster, the stone

will strip you of your glamour

and reveal your true nature!

But perhaps my fondest use

for the charm is simply to put it

to my ear, conch-like,

and listen to the systole of

the hidden world gather itself,

build to a pressure point,

and then slowly release --

even as reality, with its own

petrifications and undoings,

rushes back in like a phantom zephyr,

and the stone, hung about

my neck on a nice leather thong,

returns to ordinary bling.