Song of the Powers

Mine, said the stone,
mine is the hour
I crush the scissors,
such is my power.
stronger than wishes,
my power, alone.

Mine, said the paper,
mine are the words]
that smother the stone
with imagined birds,
reams of them, flown
from the mind of the shaper.

Mine, said the scissors,
mine all the knives
gashing through paper's
etheral lives;
nothing's so proper
as tattering wishes.

As stone crushes scissors,
as paper snuffs stone
and scissors cut paper,
all end alone.
So heap up your paper
and scissors your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone.
As you will, you will.
-Davie Mason

As I read this poem I think about the game rock, paper, scissors. How rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock. Its a clever game to settle who does what when or a game to play when one is bored. I remember many times when I have played this game. This poem is set up like a story. Each stanza telling a different part of the story, a different view. The first stanza is told by the stone, the 2nd by the paper, the 3rd by the scissors and the 4th stanza is told by someone else who comes to the realization that even though rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock- that in the end they will be alone, no matter the outcome.