Geology:
by Nancy Cummins Bierman

The gravel that I crunch beneath my shoes
once had its being buried in a mountainside
today its humble service is to overlay this path

Mere footsteps cannot crush, cannot conglomerate
Pebbles sunk in sand beneath the weight
of people strolling here retain their individuality

Bedded in damp earth by tramping feet they
nestle down like seeds in garden soil
wait with patience only stones possess

While time’s inevitable tread exerts
accumulated mass of eons, water, earth, and bones
to fuse loose pebbles into coalescent stone



 

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