Cold
Unforgiving winds
Cut my face
As I gaze across the mountainside
Accompanied by multitude of stars
Despite the clouds’ attempts
To cover the magnificent.

Every morning I hear them,
A shrieking pack of nomads
Announcing another day of searching.

They are never seen, but I know they’re close.
Like the wind, their echoing cries sway the pines and oaks
Surrounding my cabin.

Leave me be!
Every morning they cry out
Reminding me of their presence,
Something I’d rather not know
For they will likely wander forever.

A smile is such a mixed display
Of honesty and deceit.
Even the keenest are led astray
When that smile isn’t sweet.

With that smile a façade is built
Hiding one’s wants and true emotions.
A pearly white mask of fear and guilt
Outshines the truth with hollow notions.

But there lies the occasional shine,
Tearing down the walls and blockades.
Joy resounds from your soul to mine,
Hope flows from your grin in cascades.

Carry that flash of pleasantness and guile
And, to all, let it grow and accrue.
For when I bore witness to your loving smile
My heart leapt and I knew it was true.

April 19, 2009
©MDC

Sitting in a hammock, facing the sky
Looking at the trees and watching birds fly
Wondering what I’m doing here.
But it doesn’t really help to ask why.

Fire in the day and fire at night
Getting drunk while the vervet monkeys fight.
We sit telling stories of old girlfriends
And how we were always right.

Bundled in our sweats, chilled by the cold
On these African nights with their icy hold.
Content and warm, I can’t help but shiver
From memories of old.

Breathing deeply beneath the sea
Moving around with the greatest of ease
Behold this amazing unnatural world
As natural as can be.

She laughs a sweet laugh as I turn around
Calling her name, I follow the sound.
And as my eyes land on the fire
She’s nowhere to be found.

Follow the elephants and the noise they make
As they thunder across the land we take
And when you gaze into their eyes
Your soul will snap awake.

We are just footprints in the sand
Barely an impression to the world at hand.
Where years of toil yield a half-inch of soil
In this unforgiving land.

And since the sand will wash away
There’s still an awful lot to say.
Another instant, the world moves on
Into another day.

And as I rest between these trees
Thinking of her, and home, and the seas,
Sputtering, gasping, the fire goes out
So now we all will freeze.

Welcome to the land of golden trout

Where black bears roam and hawks still shout

In the eastern Sierras, hills of the west

Tales of the Adventurers and their first test.

Forming an alliance in Santa Cruz

They left together, unwilling to lose.

Packing up and heading down the trail

They knew as a team they would never fail.

Without a moment’s hesitation nor shred of doubt

The crew took their Tools of Tenacity out

And in less than three months flat

The Adventurers finished, exclaiming “that’s that!”


But who composes this mysterious crew?

Wait just one moment, I promise I’ll tell you.

First, there’s Nico the Noble, the leader so fearless

Who also frightens many when he’s not beardless;

Followed by Ben the Benevolent with his hearty laugh

And never without his Capitals hat;

Kahn the Courageous has his wild antics

Telling stories with Buckeye semantics;

Jamie the Just and her vegan ways

Had to eat lentils for most of her days;

See Jen the Jubilant with camera-in-hand

Shaving logs for as long as she can;

The team’s newest member, Maggie the Merciful,

Has now experienced the wilderness in full;

Tim the Wise lacks alliteration, unlike the others

But has chased many cows, some scraping their udders;

And at last there’s me, the Notable Narrator,

So our crew’s legacy can live forever.


In our quest the crew has changed slightly.

Those unable to handle the tasks lightly

Had left- like Mary, Bobby, and Stary the Skeptical

All well-admired, and mostly respectable.


Now let’s shift our story to the work completed

In the struggling meadow, its health near-depleted.

Using fallen trees that have long-since passed

We found a clearing with their numbers quite vast.

Cutting the deceased into sixteen-foot longs

And lugging them over thickets and bogs

Our team stacked them perpendicular

To the stream, or creek, in particular

And in a magician’s “ta-da!” moment

Water rose up to our new component,

Flowing over the freshly-made dam

Then briefly meeting with dirt and sand

At the bottom. Multiplied by thirty

And that was work: rigorous and *****.

But why were the Adventurers sent there,

To build check-dams and do repairs?

It was, in part, human consumption

That led to the meadow’s near-destruction:

America’s insatiable need for beef

Will not, for a long time, see any relief,

So Industry has pushed forward, sending cows to the fields

Grazing and growing to become our future meals.

But little did Industry know how devastating

Hundreds of cattle leave an ecosystem suffocating.

Trampling grass and dispersing banks underhoof

The bovine are easily guilty, there’s so much proof.

Stupid, noxious, and obnoxious creatures

Recognized by these, easily their best features.

Incessantly screaming day and night

They are more like demons by every right.

Yet the Forest Service lets ranchers send

Hundreds of cattle, seemingly without end.

And while the Golden Trout crew fixed things,

It’s not enough to ease the strain the cows will bring.


So what can we do, if anything at all

If we go veggie will Industry stall?

Can the end of beef save the earth

Is society only worried when we gain in girth?

That’s not for me to say right now

It’s up to you to answer the “how?”


But I digress, I must end the story

Of the Adventurers and their summer glories.

In the end they saved the meadow, saved the day

Held the bovine rampage at bay,

Raised water levels, erosion erased,

Then was the time to leave that place.

So the Adventurers hopped in their van,

Eight warriors mean, lean, and tan,

And took off down the mountainside

To Santa Cruz and the oceanside.

Each followed one’s own path

But only after taking many baths.

The Golden Trout legacy will live forever,

Only made possible by the best crew ever.