GHAAP - Sonnets from the Northern Cape

Ghaap
Sonnets from the Northern Cape
by Michael Cope

2 Ironstone

In banded ironstone the layers are

precisely parallel, in hues that range

from ochre to dark red. The stone is hard

and lasts. I’ve felt edges still sharp

after a million years – that’s not much change

compared to anything in our back-yard.

Each flake taken from that master-stone

cuts a scalloped curve through layered bands,

rendering in flowing lines its own

manufacture – a relief-map in the hand

that converses with the hand that made it.

Call it the pattern of the world, call it

pretty lace varnished with old silica.
It is your own face. You can’t evade it.