Ursula K. Le Guin : Late in the Day
Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry
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The Small Indian Pestle at the Apple Gate House
The small Indian pestle at the apple gate house. Dense heavy fine grained dark basalt. Worn river smooth all round, a cylinder with blunt round ends, a tool. You know it when you feel the subtle central turn or curve that shapes it to the hand was shaped by hands. Year after year after year by women's hands that held it here. Just where it must be held to fall of its own weight into the shallow bowl and crush the seeds. And so when I picked it up it told me how to hold and heft it. Put my fingers where those fingers were that softly wore it down to this fine shape that fits and fills my hand. This weight
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