The Next Wave

Walk slowly where the water 
laps its blue intentions on the shore.
Watch each step among the ancient stones,
scattered by yesterday’s waves.
Let your eyes travel farther
than your feet.

Explore the open sand stretches,
turn a basalt pebble in your palm, 
trace the pale quartz veins through granite,
lift a Petoskey stone from its bed of sand.
Feel the gathering weight
of the earth’s long memory
settling against your hand.

Carry only what you can honor,
what your pack can bear.
Leave the rest for other eyes.
Return the stones that ask to stay.
Set them back among their kind
so the next wave can sort them
and another walker might find
what has waited millions of years
to be held.

By Steven Wade Veatch