Marble, Breathing

 

the green marble of Tinos

the creamy white of Paros the

Venus de Milo, Virgil's "loveliest marble"

soft white Naxos, rich with crystals -

Pentelic marble, rising to the sun above Athens -

black Varenna marble

Murano's grey marble from Marmara

the red African marble at

San Angelo Raffaele with

the Archangel and his dog -

Gesuiti marble becomes

Fortuny fabric

(altare, marmorino, navata)

and Carrara, Michelangelo's marble -

heat and pressure turn limestone

into marble

limestone is organisms made stone

marble was once alive and

maybe, just maybe,

we can hear it, 

breathing.