The Path is Made by Walking

[alycewilson]

This is my entry for LJ Idol. The topic this week is "The Path is Made by Walking."

'The Path is Made by Walking'

Ahead, because she must always
lead, my sister's bitty
chihuahua forged through
Indiangrass and Little Bluestem,
nosing ahead and making muddy tracks.
My sister, holding the thin leash, savored
the chance to use her naturalist skills.
She pointed out American hogpeanut,
with its edible tubers. (I found
a Stinging Nettle, by accident.)

We pushed through underbrush, ankles
lashed by nettles on the Eastwood Meadows
trail. Visions of languid grasses,
spotted with vibrant flora,
evaporated the moment we ventured
from the overgrown access road onto
the weed-choked trail.

Our kids, curious at first, soon soured
on the adventure. Bushwacking
did not appeal to them. They wanted
open spaces, a sky abuzz with bees
and butterflies. Wild bouquets
of Cornflowers and Oxeye Daisies.
What they'd been promised. Not
this dense brush, with its narrow
vestige of footpath. With a measure

of relief, we turned around. We fought back
to the car, exchanged the prickly grass
for fantasies of wooded glades
we would seek again tomorrow.



I took this photo of white fungus on a mossy log in front of dense green trees in the Allegany State Park where the hike in this poem took place.

This is a mirror of the original entry on Dreamwidth: https://alycewilson.dreamwidth.org/15268.html