A Pleasent Retreat

Red, orange, and yellow provide unusual warmth

Along the fair trail with the fair view.

We cut past Fiddler's Elbow

With a scurry up an inclined plane.

Pain intensifies in my quads not of steel

But of bronze mixed with clay.

Trees and rocks, once just that, are lifelines.

The cold keeps me awake

But the exertion causes me to perspire.

Almost sick, I nearly face a flashback.

But we reach the inviting Appalacian Trail

And descend the rocky ridge

To a divine sunrise.

Just another day in the life of my second family.