Worry Stone
By Allison Roberts
You have faded and fallen, like a scab from a deep cut healed —
no longer inflamed by my attention. The rawness of you, and
of how I allowed you back in not once, but three times,
has pivoted from shame to grace. What I needed to learn I did.
And then some. You have become a common fossil in a tiny pebble.
Just one of many I’ve collected and poured into a
gray glass bowl. I can find you if I want to, but I have little
desire to hold you, and roll you around obsessively like a
threadbare worry stone.
Allison Roberts is an actor, visual artist, writer, and a features writer at The MV Times. Her artwork includes murals, paintings, illustrations, and three-dimensional found object pieces. Her painted rocks and jeans are for sale in the Tending Joy Store in West Tisbury. She lives in Aquinnah with her husband and two fat cats.
Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to Laura Roosevelt at ldroosevelt@gmail.com.
