These resources, water, soil, verdant vistas ought to help us get
along as Rodney King espoused
a year after he was beaten senseless in the middle of civilized LA, in plain view
on a crowded street. Are we just full of questions and expect the universe
to fold out the map of solutions?
Fear like wet leaves sticks under our city shoes
as we slowly climb a rugged path in
our impermeable clothes.
When the waterfalls come into view, one
in the West, one in the East, we feel
rewarded for taking this
outing in the Coast Range where a single
errant wolf is making its way through old groves of Port
Orford Cedars up rivers
to a mate
in this mate-arid territory where cell towers
can scope the topography
and pin-point each
resource that can impact the bottom line.
When all this is gone, waterfalls just pictures in someone's
album from a different time, when taking a walk in the woods
will become just a game we play on our mobile devices, will we be writing
fantasy stories about a fertile wolf that traveled hundreds of miles
as a new pioneer in search of his live mate under a double waterfall?
