#7 Serpentine (Mg6(OH)8Si4O10)

          She said when did a growler become a thing you stemming snake bite
          what do you go numb with at night? In Serpentine’s patterning fibrous is poison
          but the more massive you are, the more safe

          this is just a format to reveal my feelings while I teleport to other peoples’ parties
          you are in awe and then you pull a classic cancer of being both on land and in the sea simultaneously

          how to penetrate the shell and allay fears
          all mind whirring on this cliff integrate a new state of awareness
          microcrystalline Serpentine
          Develop psychic powers,

          come back for me in fog
          put your ear to my crux / listen above my head

   

#8 Malachite (Cu2CO3(OH)2)

          the rock nodules changed in air / the deposits and fold and deep green tumble of them
          the dusty items associated with abundance

          absorb environmental pollutants

          counteract long term exposure to wheat grass with lips
          unburned sage /
          this odor / my skin / ravaged by unloving, becoming picture 17 in the dirt
          I hold pieces over painful areas

          this rock can be silky or dull and a camera body shutter that moves in and out

          now my body is black and white promoting a new idea
          reborn in crags
          a gesture, a flow, the air thin and havoc

          corrosive material such as salt
          detoxifies a blue streak

          moisture disappears into photographs
          the imbalance is over because

          he sits near me and the nightmare that a new woman grows from a cut in my finger
          the legs drag behind, like bags of leaking pebbles

   

#9 Larimar (Ca2NaSi3O8(OH))

          We study our mineral pectolite layers in the mountains /
          a turquoise blue and white veining
          and say the words tolerance and Dolphin stone, deplete, evolve,
          water
          the way a chest cavity / fills with feelings / the gnats fly in oval patterns

           the opposite of prana flow

          the sparrows communicate about vulnerability and losing one’s place
          and trust / who applies balm and un-touches the devastated?

          We enter a triclinic system with a hardness scale of 4.

          what is your busy season?
          a standstill on this dirt burying the Atlantis stone in a throat chakra
          if I run near the edge and Far horizons, you sit / it is the same risk / but one of us radiates
          sharp edges, expensive and compact

          shaking between pale legs
          it’s so commonplace
          in your black jean rebel time
          I’ll leave a spiritual master around the block, encourage give and time

          the metal blade and wind and rebirth your shoulders
          this is my flight path radiating needles

          fingertips grasp an out dated map
          the usb rain technology films itself on repeat outside
          the airport gift shop

   

Jennifer MacBain-Stephens lives in Midwest and is the author of four full length poetry collections, most recently The Vitamix and the Murder of Crows (Apocalypse Party, 2019). Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She is also the author of ten chapbooks. Recent work can be seen at or is forthcoming from The Pinch, Black Lawrence Press, Quiddity, Prelude, Cleaver, Yalobusha Review, Zone 3, and decomp.   WEB
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