I celebrated February 14 with a hike on the highest stretch of El Dorado Trail, a segment I hadn’t been able to walk yet. Loki and I explored mid-Sierra forest at the same elevation and just a major canyon or two north of where Hatch and I lived for about half our married life in a house he built for us by hand. The weather was overcast but the hike lovely with oaks, conifers, and memories.
Everywhere and Everywhen
for Hatch
I said I didn’t write love poems. But now
you’re gone, I wrap myself in your old blue
parka to walk the trail, feeling you just ahead
around a bend – scouting a way through berry
bramble, or pursing your lips in songbird
distress-call, hoping to draw that unseen bird
from the bush, or examining tracks in dust.
At gloaming you might be walking our land,
singing the Uist tramping song to summon
our dogs to the door at bedtime. Being gone,
you could be everywhere and everywhen.
You’re the things I love – dogs, mountains,
forest, adventure, searching for the lost.
Is this a love poem? If you believe it is.
~ Taylor Graham
