Vishnu Schist

For Jake

The great unconformity
Is the not-there above it.
The marble lenses compact
What used to be colonies
Along it. The one-armed man
Who floated wooden boats down
Riparian lengths of it

Believed that water alone
Sawed eras to reveal it.
The frighteningly foolish
Woman your brother married
For inconvenience claimed it
Could only have resurfaced
Thanks to earthquakes. The lost soul

You would like to think you own,
Despite that long-ago sale,
Would like to out-foolish her,
Would like to thank the gentle
Man who scavenged hunks of it
For introducing its name
To you. This is it. Behold.