Pearl

is to become immanently graspable 
Pearl

The oyster’s pearl is precedence
From a quiet, resting creature that sifts the ocean
When life inserts hard measure
Surrounds with gentle folds
And turns its pain to treasure

But lesson more than learning
That time alone will show
Already tells me nothing
Ah, pearl, I do not already know

This tiny hurt of love was left, so like a grain of sand
When last she made to go
Time graced my heart to understand
Ah, pearl, I know, I know

Emptiness would rest
Without that grain of hurt
So ’round its pain I grow
‘Till hard-layered shell disguise the thing
Ah pearl, I know, I know

Oyster-man, lie quiet
There’s nothing left to do
Save gently rock in a sea of time
And grow ’round the grain of love she left in you

Encase it in a luster of multicolored hue
Mixed of tear and hope and memories
Of when your love loved you

Hard over hard, and slow
’Tis not an easy shell to grow

When years of time have rolled by thee
If some forsaken scientist from curiosity
Should wonder at your core
And crush your opalescent majesty
From vain wanting to know more
Perhaps in wonder he would see
That tiny grain of sand that hurt you so
It caused a thousand-layered soul to cover it
And brought beauty born of pain that it might never show

But I would not have to open you to see what made you
grow—

Ah, precious-hearted pearl
I know,
I know.