Stepping stones enabling you

to cross fierce rushing streams

satisfy desires fulfil dreams

but remember a missing mossy stone

can cause a watery demise!

 

Cornerstone in mentor parent friend

support salvation consolation

when in despair or life's awry.

A hand outstretched to grasp

a lantern held up in a dark world.

 

Needing  to discover truth

you are stonewalled and on

dismantling rock and stone to uncover

what's been concealed below

scorpions may suddenly dart out.

 

Flintstone sparks can fire a heart

with bright consuming leaping flames

these slowly flickering out and

no longer giving warmth. The magic

revealed as just a conjuring trick.

 

Not so pretty pebble beaches

unlike soft golden sand

more difficult to walk on

but with such transparent water

and life teeming rock pools.

 

Millstones of responsibility

impeding clutching suffocating

which unexpectedly with time

may be revealed as positive

even keeping you afloat.

 

Think you've found the purest gold

priceless flawless certified

but after touchstone verifying

just revealed as simply brass

beauty and desire had deceived you.

 

Milestones marking laborious progress

often only awarded in extremis

after dire struggles obstacles

dismay and disappointment

but once set up remain for ever.