tone of tongues

I need to find the tone of voice

that listens as well as speaks.

                                                Stanley Plumly

                                                Posthumous Keats

moon

your light is granite

gray, like the rough

stones in the wall

that retain the grass

that retain the slope

beside the house.

If I split them

would they be smooth

inside?

I live in the textures

of such a color,

a palette of pockets,

 or nesting

 bowls I sip from

even though

they remain

bereft of 

something I cannot 

name.  Inside

they are frayed

or glazed

to glass.  Outside

what's coarse is easy

to seize.

Nothing slips.

Still,

if it's rough

 and unbrushed

and slippery

inside

it is a grip

all its own:

I’m not sure

 if it makes me

 speechless

or so filled

with words

I can not find the one

that fits inside of me,

or me

inside of it