Thursday, June 11, 2020

In the Mushroom Summer


Colorado turns Kyoto in a shower, 
mist in the pines so thick the crows delight 
(or seem to), winging in obscurity. 
The ineffectual panic of a squirrel 
who chattered at my passing gave me pause 
to watch his Ponderosa come and go— 
long needles scratching cloud. I’d summited 
but knew it only by the wildflower meadow, 
the muted harebells, paintbrush, gentian, 
scattered among the locoweed and sage. 
Today my grief abated like water soaking 
underground, its scar a little path 
of twigs and needles winding ahead of me 
downhill to the next bend. Today I let 
the rain soak through my shirt and was unharmed.

--David Mason (1954- ), American poet, librettist, and Colorado Poet Laureate, 2010


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