You said take a hike so I took one,
Fording the rushing springtime rivers
Out into the Appalachians.
I crossed the Chesapeake water basin
And camped down in ghostly
Winter brown battle fields.
I went on pilgrimage with ethereal
Leaves and waylaid with gravel stones.
I bit left over bullets from
Brother against brother struggles.
Did such a fight boil over as a
Husband and wife tiff?
When I reached the mountain top
Down by Harpers Ferry, I watched
Waters distill themselves
And run into the Potomac. I gazed as
The clouds rolled off into the Atlantic.
I surveyed the diving killdeer
And the haphazards of the chipmunk.
The world is a constancy that moves
Like hydrogen atoms in the sun,
That sun sets on my backpacker’s eyes
And I find forgiveness below the
forgotten stars of forested lands.
