Keep Safe

View from on high…

Scree sprinkled basin,
Once birch and ash amidst
Pines' shadow.

Down into the bowl…

Yesterday's snow-clad mysteries,

Now of seasoned leaves making dervish their dance,

Catch sun's shimmering dalliance,
A fractal rainbow suspended,
Terrace to terrace,
Stair-step tiered,
Climber-eroded mountain sides conceded.

Still further down…

Stealing slowly,
The brambles,
Nature's love thorn creepers,
Enfold meadows where grasses thigh-high
Once bent to wind's call to the basin.

Time pauses.

A dog's bark echoes up,

Embracing Yosemite’s pinnacle-silence
As breeze sways his bivouac's lullaby,
Making magical the rising mist,
A future genesis awaiting its start

Amidst distant lake’s drifting fog.

Beyond…

The afterglow of dusk
Bows its light of reverence
To early stars on high,

Asking only the night...

Keep safe this man