April 13, 2021
Photo by Amy Jasek
River Stones
by Jessica Lee McMillan
We are river stones
carved to the skeleton of winter
corralled by limestone bars
rolling around sediment basin
of compounded seasons
and braided stream channels
that write new landscapes
in eddies of silt, dust of universe
not built, but transmuted to self,
castaway flesh to the bone
the remains of powerful floods
is a sculpture of absence,
the steps where elemental giants trod
in rambling rock formations
worn smooth down to center
as fallen leaves streamline branch
trunk stands tossed and steadfast
like us stones in the perpetual river