Fossil

Christian Century, June 28, 2003 by Kevin Hadduck

Fossil

   Here is a riverbed, familiar, and dry now for years.
   The dryness too is familiar.

   It is marked off from the desert only by the rough banks
   where sleek fish no longer hide.

   I stand in it, among stones and the stubble of willows,
   turning a fossil over in my hands--

   A breeze moans among rocks, or a deep-throated bird
   calls from the shade of a cactus--

   It is your voice, coming suddenly, without reason, cruelly
   as friends' voices do when friends have gone--

   And I touch the impress, the intricate, detailed body
   of your absence.