| Ripple By David Roth © 8 August, 2004 A small leaf Orange, with veins of green And frost tipped russet edges Floating gently In dying embers Of Summer’s last gasping breath Settles soundlessly On the glassy smooth surface Of a quiet lake Disturbing the solitude In small wakes of concentric circles Ripples Growing ever outward Ever smaller Ever more distant Changing forever The electrically charged air And the silky smooth water Molecules of time and space Altered for all eternity By the cascade of ripples A chance meeting A brush of circumstance Floating peacefully On currents of time Landing gently On oceans of space Creating ripples Growing ever outward Leaving all brushed By the tiny ridge of happenstance Altered forever And perhaps, In the final analysis When a butterfly Flaps its wings Atop some insignificant blossom In some distant forest A corresponding drop of rain Drifting through eddies and currents of time and space Continues to ride the wake Of some ancient ripple Begun before time was time And stretching into eternity Brushing and kissing Other ripples along the way |
 |