Basaltic Weight

Grit settles between fingernails as the excavation yields a stone tool, its surface polished into smooth curves by centuries of rhythmic friction. This object carries an asymmetrical grain, an imprint of physical persistence that outlasts the hands that shaped it. To hold the basalt is to feel how agency becomes etched into grooves; we do not carve new paths so much as navigate the increasing compaction of old ones. Every movement simply follows the deepening weight of what has already been pressed into existence.