What Color is a Mountain Stream? Gawping, my words run jubilant, downstream, a ribbon of gunmetal insistent, persevering, turquoise over a jumble of rounded rocks chattering, a clink of granite magnesium, under clouds glowering emerald flash, suddenly, the sun - gone again, a pool of navy, over slithering sandbeds, whisper of trout, here before you, rainbow, glass-eyed from the shadows, twisting in a silence the stars also speak round midnight, into the soft ears of black bears padding down to drink among ferns, laced with morning dew, ivory mist rising in tendrils of hissing morning light cerulean in cold air. Still, I'm speechless, my tea cooling as I wonder what color is a mountain stream.