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MOUNTAIN HIKE
Vermont’s Green Mountains called to us,
and so we went.
Up, up a trail so steep we felt like
mountain goats
ascending rock by rock.
Just as our legs began to weep,
the trail took pity,
and leveled out.
But the trail still led us up,
strewn with boulders,
adorned with moss and wildflowers,
watered by laughing streamlets,
sheltered by leafy giants,
full of hidden tree roots
awaiting a careless foot!
Step up.
Step up.
Step up.
Stop, rest.
Step up.
We hiked toward the top.
Step up.
Then the sunlight broke through the forest shade.
Step up.
We were getting close!
Step up.
Then the trees disappeared.
We had reached the summit!
Our labors were well rewarded
with a rest beside Sterling Pond
and views as if from the top of the world,
of Smugglers Notch in the valley below,
and Montreal’s skyscrapers a hundred miles away!
Then it was time to go down from the peak,
back to the valley of daily life,
many, many hard steps below.
8/19/2007 - mshr
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