My Buddhist teachers say
that you cannot step
into the same river twice.
I am not one for stepping
into rivers at all, having
as a child done so and
slipping on a smooth rock
falling and bruising my thigh.
It was more of a creek
and I should have seen
the slime on the rock
but a child is more interested
in what lies ahead and not
what lies beneath.
So even to this day when I
need to interact with a river
I will do so in a boat
and that boat I know
I can step into twice or more.