And at the Top Sits a Spring
Rattlesnake Lodge Trail, Asheville, NC
After months away
The high woods welcome me
With a beckoning breeze
And an open trail
Excitement
Courses through my blood
Deeeeeep breath in
And the sigh
I have longed to sigh for weeks
Escapes my lungs
Peaks of rolling green
Visible beyond the trees
A vireo sings
Push
Push
Push up the path
For eight months,
I saw nary a hill
And here I am now
Gleefully scaling a mountain
Utterly out of breath
Yet the peace of the wind soothes my soul
I’ve written a poem like this
Hundreds of times now
And each one
Feels like the first
Past the remains of an old lodge
A wooden signpost points the way
I am the fuck out of breath
Lugging someone’s plastic toothpick up a never-ending hill
Removing a stain
Is the least I can do
And at the top sits a spring
Laden in old stone
And heavy moss
Springs are such welcome surprises
But I dare not take a sip
It is
Magical
Here
So many holy places
On this trail alone
I want to fall to my broken knee
And melt into the world around me
Not out of desperation this time
But of pure love and belonging
A desire
To become
This
Loud steps
Moving in the thick of the rhododendron
I can’t place the creature
Is it a bear, I wonder?
Two steps at a time
Wandering
Crunching
Pan, perhaps
Here in this sylvan spot
Wild gods are such welcome surprises
A bird dives in and out of
A pool of water below the spring
Bird baths are such welcome surprises
I pay the toll
Through a mosquito bite
Just above my left eyebrow
Non-Floridian mosquito bites are such welcome surprises
I can’t melt into the ground to become the forest around me
But I can feed it just the same
168BPM to get here
And my ears are on fire
It is all so
Quiet
But not silent
Never silent next to a spring
I have drunk from the deep coffers of calm
An emerald hummingbird flutters by
And I am home