Soda Gulch,
Kings Mountain, CA

Talking our way down
the sunlit trail
to the lush shadowy
redwood filled gulch
and finding a deep rich
organic hush.  Then
most of the afternoon
in the primeval shade,
ensconced in the mountainside,
a nexus of fallen trees 
above the creekbed, 
beneath the towering 
forest of redwoods;
what a place to leave
your words, to let them
drop and drift away;
then, in silence, following
our breath back
up the steep trail,
and high above
the rising moon.
Upward the trail
rises to the ridgeline
and then swoops down
to the valley and the
continent.  Downward
the trail runs to the ocean
some few miles away.
Two small figures
midway on the empty
trail in the immensity
of moonlight.