Petoskey Stone

You said it was magic,
the universe giving us clues,
a spiritual connection to times past,
a myth, and a legend, that told us much.

You said it was the turtle’s shell
glimmering in the dawn sunlight.

You said the earth began on mother turtle’s back,
when she asked the animals to pile mud on her,
and the continents were born, and this stone is a token
a reminder of how things began, and good luck.

But now I read that the stone is a fossil
from an ocean that used to cover Michigan
when it was down by the equator.