Rockwoods Trail Poem by Robert Charles Howard

Just to shake things up a tad,
we chose to hike the trail
from tail to head –
stepping ever back in time
and the kind old earth obliged
by spinning east to west.

So our speech was backwards too
but Robin (or was it niboR)
seemed to take in every word
and she was clear to me.

We saw moss and streams
retreat toward future time
and climbed and wound
between the oaks and glades -
never stealing a backward glance.

Poised atop the pinnacle ridge
we gazed at the wooden bridge below
spanning the gentle creek
beside the abandoned quarry.

On a whim we opted for the shorter route
and leaped down into the valley -
our legs back-pedaling like
Olympic hurdlers in reverse
when all went strangely wrong.

Leaves cycled gold and green and grey
a hundred times or more and
by the time we reached the valley floor
the wooden bridge was gone
and we soft landed in the brush.

A four ton boulder suddenly
gathered dust and stones,
launched itself from the valley floor
and in a thunder bolt of dynamite
fastened to the bluff above.

We crept behind a cottonwood
to escape the eyes of quarrymen
unloading limestone rocks
by the ton from tramway cars.

The moon slipped between earth and sun
and time paused briefly on its edge
then slowly turned to forward mode
and whirled like a centrifuge -
a century of seasons flashing by
like a motorized kaleidescope.

The quarry work thinned and ceased
and the rails were struck and hauled away.
Oak twigs towered to maturity
then tumbled earthward and decayed.

A Ranger crew in jeans and khaki
came to plot and carve the trail
and we edged forward toward our exodus.

We surprised a doe with fawns,
sipping from a spring.
without screening us for guns
she urged them up the slope
where they vanished
into wooded sanctuary.

The trail meandered down the bluffs
where a clearing in the trees
revealed a road that led to other roads
that soon would carry us
across the Mississippi to our home.
Home - the epicenter of our
expanding and unfathomable universe.

September, 2008