GHAAP - Sonnets from the Northern Cape

Ghaap
Sonnets from the Northern Cape
by Michael Cope

4 Drowned

I drowned in stone. In tools, I drowned. I walked

on them. They filled me up with signs which were

themselves: formed stones. I went down. They talked

stone words behind my eyes, words which refer

to other stones in a woven whole: I drowned

in them. They filled the lungs, the heart, the hand,

the blood and bile, semen, snot, sinew, bone

hair, brain, all the form, chock-full with stone.

Submerged in the present weight of this

mass, I knew the roots that grew in through

the cracks, the little sand that dusted down

among flakes and blades and the tightness

of the thorn-bush clench. The world is tools.
The world is. The world. I drowned in stone.