The Syncline: The sandstone ponds had had a flashflood through them. In the lower pools the willows were torn and  full of wreckage, but the higher ones were beautiful. We went in naked on the sandy, gravely mud.

Polliwogs and froglets nibbled us. We slid down the algae-coated water chutes of the linked pools; the stream’s steady drip from pool to pool became overflow as our bodies displaced water.

So quiet! Wind in the cottonwoods, sun on the washed stone, warm breeze on bare skin. Absolute peace.