May – Green Mountain Falls, Colorado

I

To have two sets of eyes

As my hound does, inspired & curious

A split level pair of nostril binoculars

Fueling the bravery of shoveling snout first into a dark hole.

(Snort now, questions later)

The tenacity of dry, bare toe pads

Treading, pacing, clawing up a mountain pass

Huffing, panting, gasping

Seeking out that next pungent high.

II

A scene set in piney gradient

Swole thumbed and dry mouthed

Heaving my booted foot like a pack mule through prospectin’ trails

Listening, flicking my ears, tail swatting

through the swampy sweat at the back of my knees

Gummy pearls gathered at the cracks of my mouth

Plodding along, swole thumbed and dry mouthed

Haunches thick and aching

Shifting weight and trotting

Climbing

For the fun of it.

Swole thumbed and dry mouthed.

III

Where does heartache go?

It will have been lost to me

Winding its ghostly arms through an ancient tomb

Until the summoning shiver delivers it back

Sour and weighted

A pickled feeling

Cousin to goosebumps

Stabbing and slithering, all at once

The retinal burn, Blinking

Appearing in blackness but retreating in light

So where does it go?

To the smoky foothills of childhood.