Stowe

Glittering
diamonds under
rippling water
as though cast
haphazardly
into a shallow stream
and the sunlight
late afternoon's
got tangled in the facets
and blazed furiously
and angrily in its attempts
to be loosed and freed.

I do not need correcting. I know
they were not diamonds
even though I
with poetic license
claimed otherwise.
As for diamonds, yes
I know this, too. They are
common carbon rocks
forged by
geology and time and pressure
but cut into gems
and trumped into false value
for monetary gain they become nevertheless
beautiful and
still are
prized and coveted and flaunted
by women
lovers of all things
sparkly and good.

I was only pretending
when I said
that I walked toward
gemstones
when I was pulled toward
the stream
by fragments of something
ephemeral lying under
water
reflecting sunlight
left behind in
Stowe.