When we first arrived,
you and I,
we’d sit on this deck
and watch the day
disappear behind Brush Mountain
right over there
that way…
Now we watch the wind
in dark cedar branches
pines and madrones
oaks and firs
tall trees all grown
the horizon.
like the children,
is long gone,
Five decades leaves us
one way out of here
straight
up.
So when the time comes,
we’ll shake off our boots
and rise like glowing dust
on shafts of light
until we once again can see
Brush Mountain.
.
The horizon will still be there
waiting for us
and it will arch its back
long enough
to squeeze ourselves small
crawl under its skirts
and burst into a world
past the farthest footprints
where all words
die
a natural death.