ALNÖITIC ROCK

Fits (this uncertain rock) into your hollowed hand.

Muskrat-skull rock, mauved in places as if bled.

Hole-pocked fossil rock. A cipher. Left behind

when ice plates receded. Continental sheets.

Ice on the move. Leaving what cannot cleave.

Topographies herded flat, wide as the weft of caribou hooves.

Hoof-heavy plumb of time (here and Baffin Island only).

Or volcano-spewed, dropped from the sky.

Primordial cool, old questions weight in your palm.