Mountain Hiking

There is a completely explicable urgency 
to the day, one of seven in a week
planned for outdoor excursions on
mountain trails, the kind of daily
expeditions as close to the raw landscape
of nature an urban dweller can fantasize
of. The national forest service weather
updates are unerring, leading ambitious
alpinists like mariners at sea to remain
so hugely dependent upon. An imperative
early start to the day meant to foil late
afternoon thunderstorms when dark clouds
stall obstinately over mountain peaks.
In the process of the ascent the sound
of the mountain stream spilling over
the granite mountainside, vultures riding
the wind glimpsed through the tree
canopy with dogwood and moose
maple in the understory, a confusion
of green fragrance assails the senses
awakening memories of times long past
as fewer rays of the sun penetrate the
forest, sky increasingly occupied by
swift-moving, densely-bruised clouds
and approaching the tree line with its
stunted pines and oaks the clear view 
of the summit attained, finally mounted
one lingers briefly, hastens to descend.