A thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail
takes at least five months.
In five months:
a fetus is the size of a papaya,
a small home has been fully renovated,
2,450 dollars in rent is paid if you live with three people,
Swahili has been learned incompletely,
the grief of a dead high school teacher is finished,
a person sinks in, gets comfortable,
the planet has turned its back,
Loestrin has travelled out of the system—
who’s to say it’s not just like the Appalachian.

I’d like to make a rope out of my hair
tie it from Georgia to Maine
sail a two-pound apology all the way down
to make up for the places my body will never make it
because five months of footwork
is too long to stop nurturing a life
that is not worth living anyway
but this way
I don’t have to lose.

Part 1: 'Upon Arisal'

Upon arrival my thoughts painted a patina
Full of dark hues of crimson and ink
Creating a stark contrast between the living colors of a healthy mountain sky

Months of worry and loss perpetuated a sense of loneliness
Like a disease slowly unraveling the progress and success
Obtained after years of falling

You taught me how to stand...
How to love...
And how to forget...

Upon my first step into this wilderness,
Our home,
A rush of lost emotion was found
And above me the sky roiled,
Screaming in protest,
As my thoughts of you merged with the quiet serenity of the neighboring peaks
To form a rolling tempest
Of our past and my present

The pain then crashed upon my soul
Sending myriad flashes of opposing memories
Incompatible with the reality of your absence

Through this colorful migraine
I found the courage to take another step,
One foot in front of the other,
Each alleviating your glare that had consumed my senses

With the last ray of light upon the horizon
I, like the sun, set down your image
So that upon my arisal
Fresh eyes can begin to see the sky
For its own inherent beauty
That for so long I had attributed to you

Part 2: 'Sunrise Orchestra'

I awoke to a song
A melody foreign to the ears
Of a life surrounded by concrete
Walls that strangulate the creative nature
Against mother natures nurture

With every note, a new realization dawned
Like the sun rising above jutted cliffs
Each varying in magnitude
To the degree that even the birds
Didnt know their tune

When alas,
The chorus reached a mountain creshendo
Filling the forest with such harmony
That I knew with every single beat
These woods are a part of me

Part 3: 'A Fires Radiance'

A fire has never burned so beautifully
Its radiance so mesmerizing that,
Like a thief in the night,
It had captured and stolen
More than just my attention
But also the affection of my heart
As it brushed its golden hot flames
Into forked tridents,
Each invoking the image of poise and grace
As it danced around
Joyfully engulfing every ounce
Of positive energy to be found
With every twig and log added
The blaze raged brighter
Burning at such a pace
Not even a whole tree could withstand
Its reach
Yet no ember wishes to be confined
As the wind gusts in,
A shower of sparks fly at their embrace
Spreading the message in wonderful ashes
Across this mountain
And to the amazing woman
Who ignited my inferno

Part 4: 'We Push'

Forward we Push
Into the never ending
Winding paths that detour
The heart
From the course of the ordinary
To achieve the extraordinary
We Push
To be more than the others
And better than the most
Panting and huffing we release
Our constraints,
These chains that shackle and bind
Our minds to the normalcy
That plagues the weak
So we Push
To be
More

Part 5: 'Home, In the Clouds'

Looking back has never been so painful
To leave the place where you find peace
Is no easy task
For me that place is in the clouds
Atop deeply forested arches
That link our Terra to the heavens above
Allowing every brave Explorer
To reach for God itself,
And for just a few fleeting moments
Understand what it means to be holy,
And pure
Like the crystal clear streams that carve
The mountainside
Creating bizarre gneiss's
That resemble an ocean wave
Turned to stone,
As old as Terra herself,
Slowly crashing down the cliffside
Moving the world
With every breath
Of my mountain home

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Always remember, life is nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other. Never give up.

-L.R. Thompson Poetry