Sitting side by side,
in knee-deep water,
you wondered out loud
what it would be like
to touch a starfish.
After all, how could you not
when one such beauty
lay enticingly
very near your hand?
I cautioned you against touching
unknown things.
There is always the danger of getting pricked
and getting hurt.
You grinned--
a silly quarter-moon grin--
and we left things at that.
Skipping stones,
we laughed
as we searched the shallows for the smoothest,
flattest rocks.
The trick, you said, is in the correct bending of the back,
the right angling of the elbow,
and the proper warming and caressing of the stone . . .
as if one is warming and caressing a heart.
Hold it, you said, neither too tightly
nor too loosely,
and when the stone is ready,
with a flick of the wrist and very quickly,
let it go.
