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.



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