Getting Here
I gave myself seven hours
for the four hour drive
and arrived late for dinner.
Mountain Alder
Thirsty and wild,
the mountain alder
sinks
roots
in the creekbed
splays slender limbs
upwards, outwards
in alternating turns
up to its leaves,
unfurling knife-edged,
sprouting green catkins
in the forks between
Salt Pond
What gives me hope?
The sound of children
splashing in a pond
singing the same rhymes
I learned at summer camp
and came home astonished to find
my parents knew them too.