Patience

“..trägt es einmal der Fluβ zutag, der in die 
Stille der Steine greift…”
(it sustains only the river now that reaches into the 
silence of the stones…)
      –from “Das Buch von mönchischen Leben,” (Poem 16)
        by Rainer Marie Rilke (1899)

resting on the sandy edge
as the water passes
considering mussels and minnows
with an unspoken desire
to come another step closer
to mining the silence of the stones
the way the river does