| Oh, the dust and the dust and the dust
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| The ages of neglect by the
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| Cover of rust
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| The stone was alive, he could feel it
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| Breathing beneath his hands
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| On the table in the kitchen
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| By the light from the lamp
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| Burning high with olive oil
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| He touched the stone, like ice from the sky
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| Like ice from the eyes of the hangman
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| He touched the stone and wondered at it
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| Caressed the coarse rock and was humbled by it
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| And he knew not why
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| Why the others hated the stone from the sky
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| This gem that felt warm amidst all the cold
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| The breathing and pulsing of life in the stone
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| And he put out the lamp and crawled into bed
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| And dreamt of the stone and a tree
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| And the tree grew up from the stone
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| Watered with blood in a watering can
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| The blood of the pen
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| The pride of the poet lashed to his misery
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| And up into heaven, a fathomless tree
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| Where it bore forth wonderful fruit
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| The fruit of the stars from the womb of the Earth
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| And he awoke amidst the shudders and sighs
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| The tears that drip-drip from a faucet of eyes
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| And he saw the poem written before him
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| By the olive oil lamp in the kitchen
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| Of a seed blown far by the winds of the spaces
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| To the far-off planet and its secret places
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| To the home of the anguished and longing
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| The hope of the hopeless, the name of the nameless |