Topographical Map

Good morning. The horses are ready. The trail

will take us past the final alpine fir

to women so rare they are found only above

the snow line. Even high altitude trout,

the California Golden, find them exciting.

Flowers bloom so colorful there the colors

demand a new spectrum, and wolves turned yellow

in that arid atmosphere howl like angels

every dawn. You have a question? The region

was discovered by pioneers who floated

their findings on stars down to the flats.

If you stay a week in that dry dispassionate air

your thoughts go dreamy. Girls you like best

drift in the sky to music. When they hover

close enough to touch the music gets loud.

Young, you loved those tunes. Old, you will love

those odd breaks in time when memory sings

in your groin and girls in pairs are replayed

fighting like cats for your love, on clouds

in the valleys below. You’ll ride those times

higher than song and magic arrow, and ride

the avalanche down to withering routine.

You were coward going in.

Nothing has changed. Alpine fir has all

but disappeared in our blinding progress.

The rest was infantile mouthing. I’m coward too.

The original settlers left no record but tears.

They wept on earth where it counts. They pointed

a vague hand west and we took it from there,

and here’s where we are. If I were strong

I’d call those horses out again. The real

is born in rant and the actor’s gesture.

Good morning. The horses are ready. The souls

of unique animals and girls above the moisture

wave hello when you come into view.