Nov 232015
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