Agate

Some magic stones gained their name
from Theophrastus
on the banks of the Achates.
Beliefs yet abound:
this silica quartz soothes the scorpion’s sting,
a Chalcodeny that charms the snake,
stills the electrical storm.

Persian Magi wore them in
finger rings; Caspar
kept his offering, on
Balthazar’s advice,
taking Melchior’s suggestion that gold would do.
The Name of God, or Ali, inscribed
in rings on Shia right hands.

In Idar-Oberstein where
cold Teutons hacked out
frozen light in chips and rocks
the stone is mined still:
machine tooling gew-gaws for the new travellers,
unaware of history or myth
carried in the heart of stones.