gravel watching

edward crouches between a honda

and a mazda on amazon street

picking through pea-sized pieces

of gravel, examining each for color

and crystal structure with a twenty power

bausch & lomb hand magnifying lens.

maria, who lives across the street,

comes up behind him and says

what are you doing, dude? looking

for diamonds or magic rings? frodo ain't here.

edward flips his long gray ponytail

over his shoulder and turns his head.

no, these are better than that,

these are pieces of history.

really? just looks like gravel to me.

no diamonds or rubies or emeralds, right?

exactly. it is gravel. gravel with a story.

want to hear it? here, take a closer look.

edward slips a couple of pebbles

onto his tongue and then drops them

into the palm of his hand, holds it out

towards maria. she leans closer. cautiously.

see how the color jumps out now?

red and yellow and blue? and sparkles.

that's gross, you put them in your mouth.

she makes the finger-stuck-mouth-gag gesture.

edward laughs, holds the lens over the stones.

i know, probably shouldn't but it brings

out the color. here, look at them with

the magnifier, tell me what you see.

maria takes the lens and peers at the pebbles

in edward's outstretched hand.

ok, they're pretty i guess, but so what?

what's so special about them? are they precious?

nope. not at all, they're just chert. however......

they do have a story. one that goes back

over a hundred years ago. the old jail

was just down the street and there was

a quarry just up there. the prisoners

were sent up with sledge hammers

and picks to break up the chert on this hill.

then it was sprayed with tar to pave the street.

ok. but why do you care? it's just a bunch of old rocks.

not even worth anything and look, the colors

are already gone, they only looked nice

with your spit on 'em, now they just look like shit.

well. i suppose you could look at it that way,

to me they are a reminder of what was once here,

when the city was young. and going to jail

was no joke. not that it ever is, but back then

it was worse. working all day breaking rocks,

not as funny as old silent movies for sure.

oh i've seen those, with the men in those

striped suits like a zebra, running all funny

and jerky. was it like that? right here?

now they have those orange overalls 

and pick uptrash by the freeway. my cousin had

to do that. he got drunk and crashed his camaro.

right down there, see that laundromat?

he went right over the sidewalk through

the front window. some old lady was there.

she didn't get hit, but her laundry basket

flew into his car, and he passed out

under a pile of sheets. when the cops

got there they thought maybe he was dead

and that someone had covered him up.

that would make a funny scene in a movie,

don't you think? more than your jail house rocks.