“In this example of petrification, the dinosaur bone
has been replaced by agate and the central cavity
filled with amethyst.”

—The Great Book of Jewels

The greenish light that filters through,
Jade-pale, illumines her cold flesh,
Obsidian waters bear her weight,
Their warmth the salty phlegm of lymph.
Her thought is crystal, it commands
Her adamant gaze, her leaden tail,
Her crusted feet that tread the ooze,
Her jaw set with blunt ivories
That grind the garnet-apple's seeds.
Soon she will heave herself through reeds
More sinuous than her jointed spine,
And in the smooth mud of the shore
Lay her translucent, pearly spawn;
Hatchlings bathed in chrism, and fed
Crumb of coal and amber bread:
Blood of her blood, stone of her stone,
Amethyst of her amethyst bone.