#5

what else would
the feet of civilization
do but ache
out in the wild?
what else would baby
skin do but chafe
under an adult load?
this is not what we grew up for,
not our element, and we persist
in going, not knowing if we’ll
be rewarded or punished.

#4

This particular endeavor
I’m lucky to have chosen
and so the waiting to see
what comes to me is bearable
but life’s all the same
a game of handling it
whatever it is.

#3

I’ve been strategizing
for three days now
about the shower
in Neel’s Gap.
I’ll be allotted minutes
and need best to spend
them (wash as many clothes
as possible, and my hair).
But there is certainly freedom
in not caring (as hard as you can)

#2

the double irritation
of rain: why should it bother
you to feel a flow
down your neck,
sleep on a floating raft?
why should life
in abundance be so hard
to bear?

#1

we’re camped in a slice
of our old kind of forest
an island of pine
and rhododendron
gazing skyward
we live here now