As I turn the stones between my hands,
Sunlight gleams and breaks across its surface
Blue of the sea
Green of the evergreen forest
Purple of the setting sky
White of the clouds
Blending and bleeding into each color
Within the cage of the stone
Shifting as the sun beams from the sky
Strung around my neck.
The necklace I wore was priceless. Precious opals were strung together around my neck, stones that caught the light and reflected in white light. My pockets lighter with the cool weight against my neck, I remembered the weary jeweler who patiently explained the rarity of opals while he strung each opal painstakingly onto the wire.
He told me how water tricked down through the layers of earth, deeper and deeper, picking up the elements of the earth. Rich with silica, the water so deep in the earth boiling away from the flame of the inner Earth. Layers of silica, over years compressed under the pressure of fossils, rocks, and sandy soil. Glass-like structures deep within the earth, pulled from the depths of the earth, sparkling and glinting against the dark black of earth, changing color with each angle.
He handed the necklace and I kept it clutched to my chest. They all stared at me as I walked by. The sun shone bright in the sky and the stones around my neck twinkled with pastel shades, the gift of the deep mines.
