Happiness is
The pebbled trail ahead
Shrouded in the mist of dawn
All of my layers unshed
Coffee still warm in my belly
We’ll reach the summit by ten.
Happiness is
A slow descent
gradual enough to lose yourself
to conversation
or dreams
only to wake and realize
you’re passing through lands
so mystical in their beauty
so wild in character
that your own beauty
your own character
is fortified by proximity.
Happiness is
Hot soup from the camp stove
clean thermals and thick socks
Arms and legs and feet and spine
A body that’s earned every second
of the gift of living that day
which is ending
with a glacial stream
roaring and pouring past
on down the mountainside
The mules resting and cows roaming
The wild sounds of night
when stars are the only light.
Finally civilized; purely tired.
