Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Tammy Smith

Life is a Gem


Is that a marble in your back pocket, or is it a small stone? It's tough to tell the difference between objects that are roughly the same size when the world decides if the value of a physical property reflects what it's worth. Wait and watch as judgment rises and falls like a heavy sigh. Every pocket is stuffed with things to keep, carry, or fling into the wind or water—harsher and deeper than a heavy sigh. The world won't wait in gentle silence for you to choose between something shiny or something sharp. But marble is a type of stone.  We can't pretend it isn't buried in the sand at the edge of a dune or in the corner of an unmarked spot overgrown with grass.


every stone

isn’t a toy

marble to toss




Genuine Gemstones


You don’t get better at guessing 

how many jellybeans 

fit inside a jar. 

Growing older 

has nothing to do with 

winning any prize. 

It means maintaining 

a childlike wonder 

when observing the world 

and the natural order of things, 

like windswept skies tossing 

hair over bone or a bare knee 

brushing against resources 

and bruising. What nature

rushes us to fix, like memory, 

declines as we age. 

We forget how to measure 

the sentimental difference 

between distance and time. 

There’s no ruler or calculator clever 

enough to convince me the world 

is real. 

You aren’t a stone’s throw away 

from this gingerbread house 

stuffed with sweet things to

chew or suck on like candy.

I never moved away from 

believing in fairytales 

or what lies within 

the belly of a witch.


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