In the woods
If you stop on the bridge
And roll your window down
You can hear a far off thunder
That’s it and if you park
Just off the shoulder
And follow the path
That will appear
You will soon see
A brightness through the trees
Not the water hole itself
But a patch of sunlight
So head for that
Sunlight and thunder
That is where the water gathers
At the base of a waterfall
As beautiful a place
As any I have seen even in Peru
The feeling is the opposite of the rapture
Of witnessing the ignition of the rocket
That carried a man to the moon
On this 50th anniversary of the moon landing
For this stream is an ancient engine
Powered by a million years of gravity-driven-water
That sculpted these ledges
Into this overhanging hall
Where hundred year-old-hemlocks
Overlook a room
Created by water for itself
My barefoot steps rediscover
Wild water
New worlds proliferate
As I make my way over
Rocks seriously slippery
Now I am waist deep
And I can’t remember exactly
Who I am or why I came
Or what was the mission
When we sent man after man to the moon
They should have sent them here
To let their brains cool
Where the locals swim
Leaving only their footprints behind
And echoes of their laughter