Riverie
by Irena Pasvinter
Boulders, cobbles, pebbles, sand, silt and clay all lived in the same river.
Boulders stayed put. Only during the spring flood the river became so restless and powerful that even boulders were caught in its crazy rush and dragged towards the unknown. But this did not last long. Most of the time boulders lay happily on the river floor, proud of their size and stability. They disdained cobbles and pebbles and ignored sand, silt and clay. Boulders did not care for the unknown.
Cobbles envied boulders, despised pebbles and loathed sand, silt and clay -- all part of the same crowd: mud. Cobbles wanted to be boulders, but they were smaller and could not afford to. The river shuffled them much more unceremoniously than boulders, and cobbles found this humiliating.
Pebbles did not care for boulders and cobbles. They loved to move around, the spring flood was their favorite time. Pebbles envied sand, silt and clay their lightness and mobility. If pebbles stayed too long at the same place, they got depressed and hissed at passing sand, silt and clay: mud, mud, mud.
Sand, silt and clay were friendly with each other. When pebbles and cobbles called them mud, they laughed and winked, never telling why. It was their secret. Anyway, these stupid boulders, cobbles and pebbles would never believe. Sand, silt and clay knew that they were once parts of huge rocks or of the same boulders, cobbles and pebbles that now called them mud.
Sand, silt and clay suspected that someday they could become rocks once again, and then these rocks could give birth to stupid boulders, cobbles and pebbles. But as it was a very distant future, they preferred not to think about it. Light and free, they traveled with the river current and laughed.
Irena Pasvinter divides her time between software engineering, endless family duties and writing poetry and fiction. Her stories and poems have appeared in online magazines ("Every Day Poets", "Every Day Fiction",
