Rock of Ages

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me
let me hide myself in Thee"

Fifty years ago
I carved my young name
in this rock ledge,
a jackknife inscription
in ancient stone;
I don't remember why--
then, but now,
not because
the rock belonged to me,
but I to the rock--
like these fossils,
one with the stone.

The wind is wearing me out
of the rock,
while it bares the fossils
lying in their sealed
cretaceous tomb;
wearing out my name
in grains of sand,
sifted and received of earth
before, at last,
it covers me
to wait--
another birth in stone.

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