While hiking in the wild
I picked it up on the trail
Hard like a diamond
Sleek like a mirror
Tender like a cherry bud
Soft like rubber mud
Cool like glacier water
Hot like larva
That I tried to manipulate into a word
Hoping to wedge into the little crack
On the ladder standing high
Against the Babel Tower

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, username: Chmee2/Valtameri under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence.