planting wet pebbles
     --------------------
     
     you always loved the water
     seaside wanders or
     hiking to follow a winding stream
     the glistening ripples drew you
     irresistably to follow their music
     out of the house and away from
     everything you were expected to be
     
     now you are bound here
     in this arid family plot
     constrained to orderly rows
     of predefined rectangles --
     I can offer only this little:
     an arc of glistening river stones
     curving from where you lie
     to the nearest edge of
     the sheltering woods
     where you might yet find
     dancing among the tree trunks
     the elusive echoes of freedom

	-AC Missias (7/97)