Into the Wilderness

The path you’ve chosen is challenging—
It is of the lesser traversed:
The trees that abound are imposing,
And something in its shadows always seems to lurk,
Although they provide a nice canopy
For when ominous clouds are wont to burst,
Reassurance offers greater security
When things go from bad to worse.

And when that happens,
When you feel you can no longer endure,
Illuminate the sky with the brightest, red flare—
I will hear your cri de coeur.


You love hot tea,
Hopefully you’ve got some in your thermos,
For when cold ensnares your tiny body,
You’ll need something warm to hold to you close;
Let it spur your insides,
Singeing, even, your underclothes,
Until you’re a human bolide,
Leaving ablaze trails in your afterglow.

And when woods are alit
By a barreling mystique,
I’ll know you’ve opened the soffit
Beneath where your bones creak.

Because beneath that luminous exterior
Lay a spirit that looms larger than those trees,
And a heart ten times warmer than any estival breeze;
You embody the fervor of a raging river,
Churning as it thrusts unto where it empties...
And like the body... to which it delivers,
Your potential, too, has limitless boundaries.


—Kevin Waring