Butterscotch and cream and grey
are the stones of the lake shore.
We’d put them on a driftwood board
and make a candy store,
or build them into a tower that took all day.
Later I learned the fossils: stem
of crinoid, honeycomb
coral, wing of brachiopod –
I’d collect the odd
or special ones, tally and treasure them.
Sometimes a fossil leaves a sole
negative space in the stone.
The first day we’d arrive I’d run
down to the beach alone
to find a lucky pebble pierced with a hole.
For all the years we’ve made this trek,
I’ve found along this beach
dozens of stones with holes, and each
I added to a string.
Who ever wore such luck around their neck?