Here
Step, step, shuffle slide
across the bar of dusty dry
water shifted rock and sand
braided twisting sweeping bend
lies clean, shear glittering stone
tells gravity's liquid rainbow
how water once, just, so
caressed and worried ripples
in the medium below
Tooth marks and stripes
in sorted fractions
span settled forms
remembered action
how water once moved
how deep how smooth
she used to lie
above the earth
beneath the sky
Copyright 04/10/99 Unpublished Works William M. Shannon