Allegheny national forest. Photo by Jim White.

When I go

What will flow

From your minds into lungs and throats and mouths

And out

Fog like

Misty eyed

Mountain top rock likes to roll

Down the hill side

A volcanic moment

Highs and lows we embrace like it’s just the way to play along

Life designs

Our rhymes

And signs

Like stars and blankets underneath

In back of pickup truck

Seeing breath

Exhale

And wonder at the curious extension

Of another day

For us

Yet

My shadow is suddenly

Obscured

By clouds

In sounds

Like crashing waves

Or cymbals

To accentuate a climax

Or a

Life

Traveling from

Caterpillar

To butterfly

To snakeskin

Dried out

At the side of the road

In the desert.