A Day's Walk Poem

It can be found in the Vetter's Echo cabin, just east of Pronghorn Ranch.

Content[]

I wake on Owanjila's shore, and bathe.
And watch: the daylight kindles yellow fire
Above the dam, and soon ignites a swathe
Of eastern pines , until the lake's a pyre

Of blood red waters, yellow, gold, then blue
Once more. I pack my tent, and join the trail
Beside the river, heading north, the dew
Still wet upon the grass, the light still pale.

Here Canis latrans hunts Leporidae,
Crotalus atrox lurks in longer grass,
And once, I saw the distant amber eye
Of Ursus horribilis watch me pass.

And I among them, Homo sapiens:
Student not master; brother, not their lord.
Amid these fragrant pines, my blood transcends
Myself: an ancient kinship is restored.

Uphill the trees grow bare, seared long ago
By some forgotten fire. The trails turn north.
Soon I can see old Hagen capped with snow,
Across a tide of lupines rolling forth,

And there I leave the path, stretch out my hands,
And wade for home across the valley floor.
And yet, there's something missing from these lands.
Oh come, my Annabella - I implore!