White Rocks

Three teeth in a grandmother’s mouth

yawning skywards

First molar, flat-topped,

amalgamated fillings—

a patina of pine-needles,

stained here and there with traces

of manganese oxide

Second bicuspid, massy, white,

undercut, the work

of a giant’s tablespoon

Scrawny firs cling tenaciously in the fissures,

root-arms wrapped tight

like a sea-snail adheres to the coast

when a diver comes questing

for its iridescent shell

Lateral incisor,

jagged to crack the sky

a natural turret

And here, smeared

orange with lichen,

foundations of a tower from long ago

August 2010