Large Fierce Mammal

“The Watchstone” (LFM Photo — click to enbiggen)

In the spirit of Stonefall, tonight’s Dark Sentiment reflects on another case involving rocks moving around with outside assistance, mixed with a little imaginative historical interpretation.

The actual stone on which this is based, pictured above, is the largest of a small cluster of “glacial erratics” — stones picked up by advancing glaciers in the most recent ice age and later dropped when melt released them as global temperatures warmed. Depending on the type of stone and its resistance to rough handling, “The distance of transportation may range from less than 1 km (0.6 mile) to more than 800 km (500 miles)”. These erratics can be quite enormous, the one in the picture standing approximately 2.4 meters (8 feet) at its highest point being far from the largest I’ve seen.

Now, oh learned and Goode Reader, mindful that when you watch the stone long enough, so too does the stone watch you, I invite you to consider tonight’s offering.

The Watchstone

By LFM

By a ruined road through forest lands,
A boulder called the Watchstone stands.
Who named it that is lost to ken,
In all the years to now from then.

Now solemn Hemlocks hold their sway,
They know the tale but cannot say,
The oldest crone is far too young
To understand their Hemlock tongue.

Who stood this watch that named the stone,
O’er bawling ox and cartwheel groan,
Along this road now gone to dross,
Long overgrown and claimed by moss?

But men forget how short their day
To stones that came from leagues away
In icy age now long agone
That knew the mighty Mastodon.

No answer carries on the breeze
From stones that came before the trees.
The oldest crone is far too young
To understand their granite tongue.