In Which I Dive Into The Story Of The Stone

An image now infests my teeming mind --
Not of the bugs that friends of mine expect,
But just one thing: a stone that one might find
Beside a road somewhere. 'Twas a reject
When Nu-Wa rebuilt heaven, but her hand
Imbued it with rare life. It's not unique
To Western tropes, this notion of the grand
Raised from the lowly, mighty from the weak.
Our psalms make it the capstone; Xuecin Cao
Gives it a soul and sends it through the world
To learn of love and pain and, perhaps, how
To make sense of illusions that have swirled
Around us all, right from our helpless birth.
The Story of the Stone roots me to Earth.