AFTER-THANKSGIVING HIKE

HIKING COWICHE CANYON WITH GRANDKIDS

THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING

All stones basalt, and I fear

we won't find much. Sammie

calls them meatball stones

and I call her metaphor

a find. Dheezus finds

a 5-pounder with a waterfall

down the center

we stash on the trail

so she doesn't have

to pack it both ways.

The girls smell

sage walking

through it, picking

leaves, rubbing them

into hair, stuffing

pockets. Sammie

sees money

building itself

into the horizon,

calls it out,

Show-off mansions.

We're walking the Loop

to Cowiche Creek

stopping where out

croppings create

photo perches

children knew

before they were born.

The girls remember

their hike on Mt. Rainier

this summer, when

they refused the trail

because feet threatened

mating grasshoppers.

Sammie finds a

fist-sized heart-shaped

stone with a lake in it.

Dheezus curls her body

into a ledge. We stop

on a sitting stone

large enough

for the three of us

and shell peanuts

discussing how plants grow.

Jim Bodeen

25 November 2017

Sky Canyon opens for children the way abundance shows itself in dreams. Oh, Jeez, we say, waking. Ears for the people is not everyone's crystal cup. How do we know the things we know before we were born? This is the mystery of children, and my option. It strikes me this morning that this was my mother's option also. At the time I thought it was a safe place to land.