A man stops and stares at the water for a long time, looking for something. A while later, he walks away.
You see him from a distance. You are sitting, watching, you realize, the man watching the water. Did he find what he was looking for? You decide to approach the water to see if you can find it too, some meaning perhaps, some small vision.
When you arrive, are near enough to see the ripples approaching the edge at which you stand, you have your answer, or, really, two possibilities: either he did not find what he was looking for because it was not there, or he did, and he took it away with him.
Craig Morgan Teicher is the author of several books, most recently To Keep Love Blurry, and is the editor of Once and For All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz, due out in April from New Directions. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and children.