that have the weight and heaviness of a stone
large enough
to change the course of the river.
there are countless little questions
that we run over
smoothing them with our burbles and our chatter
those stones at the bottom of our rivers
those questions create
beautiful ripples and eddies
and ways of sweetly running together
but then
there are those questions that hover
above our waters
with a presence
thick and mighty
a gravitational pull
that forces
the stones to re-arrange themselves
that forces the waters
to undergo choice
to find a direction
a form a shape a pattern
new and different.
Those questions
are posed at a distance
we feel the shadow of them
looming
for quite some time
but we skillfully
avoid them answering
by rushing
but they will come again those
words
when we are ready
(and when we are not)
again and again until
one day
becomes today
the question is posed.
i did not see this stone.
was i hiding from it? no, i just
wasn't ready to hold it.
such stones - they need careful holding.
but then i rounded the bend.
and you saw me.
and who you saw -
it startled you, too.
so much so
that you let go of the stone you had been slowly polishing
will you...
(how did i not see this moment coming?)
all i could do
was laugh
as the fishes in me
swarmed
as the octopus
came to attention, tentacles suddenly poised
as the clams and oysters and mussels
snapped closed
and the little barnicles swam quickly through my arms
the stone was dropped
the waters parted
there was nothing to do but
sit in silence.
will you....
Never have I been asked.
Gratitude amazement the light shined brightly
on foam and wave and current - looking back -
i have come such a long way
we have traveled so far along the banks of these shores
and now this, this invitation
just as I thought I would go the other way
the swarms of fishes, they looked
they saw such a vast beautiful lake
familiar yet utterly new
we had never been here before:
I have a thousand yeses for you.
But the octopus
she has just come out of her cave
and the mussels and oysters and clams
are only just learning to open
to feed on proper food
not just sand and grit and plastic -
(I have only just begun cleaning
the damages of the oil spills)
And there is an ocean!
The octopus needs a very large ocean
the mussels will need fresh food from far distant shores
the barnicles
are seeking.
They are seeking
a whale.
You my love
you my love
you my love
You do not travel as much as you used to.
Were it just a question of fishes:
perhaps.
(maybe in the future?
after some high sea traveling on my own?)
but really
the barnicles
need
a very strong young whale
to take them deeper
than they have dived thus far.
I have only
just discovered
about leaving the harbor.
Just for today
I choose to trust that there
are other Stones
that might someday
be dropped
into the deep silence
where the whales sing.
And so these questions
come to us when we are (are we?) ready
and they hover
then they drop
embedding themselves into the plates of our souls
changing the shape
of our oceans.
You, you are so bright.
a silver diamond you shine
as your question sinks itself down
nestling itself into the soils at the bottom.
My question still stands
you whisper as you walk out the door
So does my answer
I murmur
when he leaves
the fishes protest.
i am left
gasping for air,
drowning in myself;
these waters are not yet calm.
but the mussels practice opening their shells
the barnicles are beginning to look
for that whale.
and the octopus
oh the octopus
she has not
returned to her cave.
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