On doctor’s orders – for my bones – I’m making time every day for a 30-miniute walk. On my own orders – for my wanderlust – I’m trying to find a different place every day to walk. Here’s a report on today’s hike – also my answer to today’s poem-a-day prompt on the internet: to include Thelonious Monk song titles in my poem.
Ugly Beautiful
or is it beautiful ugly? this side path
off the paved bike-&-hiking trail, earth worn
down by repeated beat of boots
through wild high grasses, men with chainsaws
cutting trees – for fire safety, or fire wood?
A rampaging creek from weeks of winter rains
is now a memory in mud. I pick
my way – the way of work and discovery,
evidence of passings, and openings
to introspection and reflections. What do I find?
a scattering of wildflowers, firewood
stacked at random, an old fire pit with remnants
of – who knows? a homeless camp?
And just as I’m about to cross the mud
that once was creek, a white moth – emblem
of love lost to the next world – comes
dancing on air, just for me.
~ Taylor Graham
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