Two stones,
snarling in the water’s throat,
grinding centuries into dust-
clack, clash, crack,
they rage like teeth in a skull that won’t shut.
The river hisses,
foam frothing with laughter,
every strike a scream,
every scrape a hymn
to stubbornness and violence disguised as love.
Time gnaws them both-
edges bleed away,
sharpness eaten by the current,
yet they will not let go.
They hammer, they bruise, they blister,
until friction becomes fire
and fire becomes silence.
And then-
astonishment!
the two are no longer two.
The seams vanish,
their quarrel dissolves into bone-deep unity.
One stone,
heavy as a verdict,
drops to the riverbed.
Water shudders.
The stream stumbles sideways,
bends its silver spine,
and life-green, crawling, flowering life-
spills into a valley that never knew its thirst.
Children of reeds rise,
fish dare the shadows,
roots taste the new wet earth,
and the world begins again-
because two stones could not stop
crashing
until they became
one.