The house came with river rock
around widely-spaced hostas,
a bonafide playground for
a little kid and me.

At two, my grandson
likes to carry a few rocks in each hand
or put them in & dump them out
of his little red plastic watering can

which is what we were doing
this afternoon
when I found a keeper:
half-inch crinoid
hollow core
a definite keeper

or
a gift
for his mom
to put on her kitchen windowsill–
a little marvel to see each day.

The hose intrigued the toddler
too much to revel
with me in my find,
but when she came home,
I nearly whooped,
Hey, look what I found in your flowerbed!

She glanced at my palm–
her attention on her son who had
replaced rocks with a stick in each hand–  
and said, Yeah.

300 million years old
washed and found
on my windowsill now
Yeah