River Stones
When centuries are seconds
Water shapes stone
With the gentle assertion
Of thumbs in clay,
Smoothing from ancient,
Crystalline fractures
The soft, living curves of flesh
Be water to my stone,
So I may rest in your hand
Smooth as a fresh-picked apple,
Cool as a stone
Left by the river
Let days become decades
I will give your shaping flow
The grit that discovers
The flesh in the stone
Cynthia Stamps
