riverbed

Have compassion on the young -
they don't have stories to look back on yet...
no legend of the self to hold out
hope

for how we run like water, cresting,
crashing, spraying, shattering
on the rocks and falling back together
into one more torrent, or
pooling half-stagnant in
the slowly-draining brooks and ponds.

Let patient kindness fill your words
and thoughts. They don't know yet -
they won't know, even if you tell
a million times - they just can't feel it
till they reach the wider places,
catch their breath, and glance around
to see that through it all, beneath it all,
despite it all, there's always been
a riverbed.

Pingvellir Falls - photo copyright me