River Bed

On rainy days I'll read a book
Can't find a thing without taking a look
Often I'll find sparks that remind
Of someone I should thank

Like Einstein for his useful notions 
Such as relativities or photons
Speaking of sunshine it must be time
To head to the river bank

Avoiding the poison ivy
Just like my grandma taught me
Under the trees I move with ease
Until the slope is steep

Using trees as hand holds
Scanning for roots or a rock that won't roll
I make my way to seize the day
Until I need to sleep

When the sun is brightly shining
I'd rather spend my time outside in
The shade of boughs or windswept clouds
Each molecule a blessing

With new leaves to be turned
Unimaginable lessons to learn
I'd rather be where I can see
What others have been missing

A garbled screech breeches my calm 
I raise my head up in alarm
What is the wind now carrying in
It seems a familiar cry

Into view a squawking pelican
Flew past the canopy opening bellowing
Letting me know a brief air show
Was passing in the sky

I see in the trees a branch that had split
And a new branch has forked off from it
Off from the stump where the old one was
A new effort grows

A swath of smooth stones line the other shore
Perhaps there was a bridge here before
With time it crumbled and pieces tumbled
Splashing in the water below

The bank is flanked by block-like rocks
That at one point must have been built up
Corners in the stream hint that these 
Have not long withstood the flow

A natural formation 
Or a builder's creation
Once went across this river's course
Which it was I cannot know

Unless I get lucky and perhaps
I can come across a historical map
On which an old path for the road
Is there and clearly shown

That's the only way to know
Now as I sit here with nowhere to go
I'll imagine any option
That could've created this swath of stones

Rolling down a bed slick with algae
To ever go back upstream is unlikely 
A one way trip for stones that slip
Off from their original formation

Their mass resists the constant flow
But there's simply no other way to go
The momentum will erode them
Ever onward to new locations

A crumbled block got to where 
It is now by just standing there
Going on slow with the flow
Scratching the bottom

River stones off tumbled ridges
And forks that split to make new branches
Caused by rain drops that do not stop
Where they've fallen

Where they fell was wet already 
So with friends they started going steady 
Always downhill as water will
To join up with a stream

Until it winds it's way to the sea
Either to sink down deep as can possibly be
Or be splashed from waves and evaporate
Or somewhere else inbetween

Forming bodies of water so wide
The moon's pull creates tides
That make beaches wherever water reaches
From cracks in the rocks

Expansion and contraction
Split cliffs up into fractions
Then those all fall into small small
Shards of tiny blocks

In the ebbing and crashing tides
Or in the river's course to slide
Rounding the rough square edges off
Polished smooth and clean

The bridge ridge rocks lay splayed out
As in the sky the rolling clouds
Will continue bringing rain to
Refill the rolling stream

It seems like magic that it's an
Automatically recharging system
Solar powered just like flowers
Springing from the ground

Like a tree swaying in the breeze
Pumping sap to feed new leaves
Evapotranspirating glands
Ejecting future clouds

Like a farmer gleaning fields
The trees photosynthetically yield
Both nutrients and seeds to plant
For later rain harvests

Winds direct where these cloud will be
When they've gathered moisture heavy
Enough to form droplets that pour
Down on some distant forest

Or fall as snow on a mountain peak
Or dump directly back onto a sea 
Or on dry earth to quench roots thirsty
Absorbent hairs

A plant that had gone dormant 
Gentle rain starts to reform it
Just what it needs to make new green
Foliage appear

The newly sprung buds receive
Solar power to grow into leaves
To soak up more sun than before
Now with more surface area

If you think of it as beauty
Science doesn't feel like a duty
If you don't want to miss magnificence
Don't let the math scare you

It might just be wrong anyway
And who is anyone in the crowd to say
That it's all wrong while playing along
Nodding in steady movement

Trends would show it's likely to be
Some sociopathic corporate scheme
With experts paid to take what they've
Been told and go and prove it

That's called motivated reasoning
Like adding too much seasoning
To hide the taste of rotting waste
That should have been discarded

But with the fallacy of sunken costs 
Bosses refuse to take the loss
Trickling it down onto some clown
Who's just glad to be regarded

The clown takes it as a chance to see
How the paper ghosts avoid defeat
These ephemeral wisp criminals
Known to all of us only by name

"Nonphysical entities are people too"
There's nothing that you can ever do
To make me agree that you and me
And an abstract idea are the same

But this gives me reason to recall 
A lesson learned from taking a fall
Is harder than words from a friend
But easier to remember

So I'll listen when a teacher speaks
But still I'll try to climb for the peaks
The miles earn the lessons learned
With theory and practice together