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Most of all the water is unbelievably blue. The jungle shades of green
and wet with recent rain.
Songs of shama thrush weave through filtered light.
We're watching every step so as not to slip in the mud, carrying way too
heavy a load.
Why do we do this all the time in so many ways?
But we are going ahead, foolish and stubborn, some would say,
Amidst breathtaking beauty.
The ocean spreads itself forever away
Until it touches the infinite sky at the horizon, we see the curve of
the earth out there,
And far below the surf laps and crashes on black lava. and sea turtles
play close to shore.
All day, in and out of canyons, up and down bluffs.
Looking down the coast
we see the steep accordian folds, the sharp canyons descending.
Further in, the trail changes,
perched along the cliff
narrow and uncertain,
hanging over all of that beauty.
Little stones roll under our boots, threatening and teasing, while the
cooling breeze becomes a howling wind and our hearts are in our
throats, our legs shaking.
Every step I think about my daughter, becoming a young woman, my
mother, light as an autumn leaf, my husband's strong arms around me,
about my life and all the things I want to do, about the person I'm
still becoming.
My friends a wreath around my frightened heart,
I even ask angels to hold our six feet steady on the narrow trail
Step after careful step.
Finally we are past the cliffs.
We rest on a bluff A broad grassy place.
Hot and shaking I can't get into the pool, fed by a gushing fresh
spring, fast enough.
The water pours over my head, a natural baptism,
And I am safe and whole.
At night the sky clears above the bluff, and as the stars look down,
my heart opens to a place, both rare and familiar.
stopping its restless search,
for a moment
full of wonder and peace. |
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Submitted by Mary Morgan
Copyright © 2001
Mary Morgan. All Rights
Reserved. |
