Inspired by the siliconari in Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard.

Tides of Stone
© Allison Lonsdale 1998
Live at Lestat's, Disc One, Track 4

I envy those who feel it pull them like the tides of water
It pulls me like the tides of stone
The slow tectonic dance of mountain range and continent
I feel it drawing on my bones

I envy those who find the opposite of their religion
In the ancient aching in the hips
There is no church for me save in the rarest company
Where I catch volcanic angels on my lips

        Below the roots and rocks
        I feel the powerful pulsing of magma in the vein
        I am just soft carbon; when I bear this force it has to register as pain

This is the pressure building in the deep and secret places
This is the moving of the land beneath the land
This is the heat of newborn islands rising from the ocean
Another continent takes shape beneath your hands

        And I say, oh, let me be born again of precious stone
        And leave this flesh and blood of mine behind
        This is a longing deeper than the bone
        I do not ask that you be kind

I envy those who feel it pull them like the tides of water
It pulls me like the tides of stone
I feel it act on me as if eros were gravity
I need a satellite to call my own

I envy those who find the opposite of their religion
In what's crystallizing in my blood
I know no holy ground save what I cover lying down
Where there are burning angels in the mud

        Below the crust and mantle
        I feel the depth of this convection to the core
        I am just soft carbon and I am not taking diamonds lightly any more