They hurtled
through the icy silence
of space
from fragile constellations:
sharp, hard, alien.
To them
their shattering
must be like yesterday;
to us it is the culmination
of millennia,
a joining of star-dots,
when a rock
cracks
and we discover a xenolith
within.
Kim M. Russell, 7th September 2026

This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub we area writing quadrilles with Melissa, who says that X marks the spot.
Today our petite poems of exactly 44 words must include a word provided by your dVerse host, and today, that word begins with X, the first-ever quadrille word beginning with x: xenolith, a fragment of foreign rock trapped inside a larger igneous rock.
Melissa tells us more about the word and even provides a list of words that semi-rhyme with xenolith. She has also shared excerpts from poems that include the word.
I love the way I am invited to such a hunt for gemstones.
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Thank you, Björn!
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Nice one
much love
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Thank you, Gillena! And much love to you.
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Kim, the image you chose got my mind wandering. Could that be a fossilized ET astronaut in their fossilized ship?? I love your ET meanderings in the poem.
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I wonder if there are any alien rocks in Trump’s files or stashed away in secret laboratories…
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I think he arrived as xenolith: a lump of coal embedded in kryptonite.
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LOL
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“To them
their shattering
must be like yesterday;”
These lines are fascinating to me.
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They stood out to me too 👍
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I like to think everything has a sense of time and some kind of feeling, Melissa, even rocks, and especially alien rocks. 😊
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Kim I love how this vividly contrasts the vastness of cosmic time with the sudden, quiet thrill of a human discovery 🙌
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Thank you, Ange!
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You’re welcome 🩷
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Flying objects.! Lucky enough, nothing untoward to Mother Earth! Wonderful lines, Kim!
Hank
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Thank you, Hank!
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Lovely poem.
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Thank you, Maria.
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Great idea for the prompt.
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Thank you, Dwight.
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You are very welcome!
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Kim, your poem makes me think about the scientific uproar that would occur over a new element being found in an object that hit the earth. Wouldn’t that be amazing!
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It would indeed, Shaun! But then, we don’t know what is being kept from the public, especially with the ‘alien files’ Trump has been going on about.
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i always love your choice of words and how they flow. Interesting idea, that xenolith may have stories to tell.
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Thank you so much, Sreeja!
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A wonderful poem Kim.
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Thank you kindly, Kim!
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An epic journey through space (inner – and outer) Jae
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Ps and a reference to Space Oddity? Even better if so
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I’m so glad you spotted that, Jae!
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Thank you, Jae!
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You make ‘them’ come alive!
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Thank you, Rosemary!
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