Patience

Patience is wider
than one once envisioned,
with ribbons of rivers
and distant ranges
and tasks undertaken
and finished with modest
relish by natives
in their native dress.
Who would have
guessed it possible
that waiting is
sustainable— a place
with its own harvests.
Or that in time's
fullness the diamonds
of patience couldn't be
distinguished from
the genuine in
brilliance or hardness.