The Tale of the Grief Stopper
A stone created by this river is called the pausilypos. Anyone grieving
who finds this stone is immediately relieved of the pain which holds him.
—Pseudo-Plutarch
On the day another boy
was shot, I took a stone
from this river. On the day
I heard his name, I lifted it.
I held it. It glittered
in the summer sun.
Aspens fluttered.
Cicadas thrummed.
I caressed its small, soft
skull. The boy was six-
years-old. He was
at a garlic festival
when he was shot.
Greeks placed bulbs
of garlic on cairns
at cross-roads—a gift
for Hecate—as protection
from demons.
It was the son of Poseidon
who threw himself
into this river when
his own son marched
against his neighbors
and was killed. He was
held down by water,
by the water’s hands
which are not hands
the way water is not grief.
His grief turned the river.
Now all we have are stones.
They are hard and small
like something in my shoe.
Like someone is walking
on my soul. He was six-
years-old. The river
is dry now.
The water is gone.
Aspens quake
in the bright air.
Cicadas crackle.
All that’s left
are stones.
from Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in PurgatoryFind more by Jeffrey Thomson at the library
Copyright © 2022 Jeffrey Thomson
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.