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Nov 232015
 

by Lowell Jaeger

 

sure we dug latrines

laced lanyards

learned to keep food cool in a dirt pit

baked mock strudel

in a tinfoil oven

the heat carefully regulated

by placing glowing embers just so

 

and learned when the adults turned away

to share a single purloined stogie

our green faces greener

in the smoke-filled moonlight

our bristled crew-cuts huddled

over one failing pocketlight

spotlighting girlie mags

page after page

 

i’d swear a scout’s oath

i heard the trees listening

and woke in the mist before sunrise

to wander far as the trail would wind

 

as fiddleheads unfolded

and pines pollinated pines

 

and the earth held my steps steady

and the sky gave me room to climb