Mountain Trail

The rain, steady and light falling from
the grey cloud cover stalled over the
mountain tops, has created a bright
vista of luminous green the darkness
of the forest interior fails to eclipse
and the forest glows. The time-worn
trails snaking up the sodden mountain
sides are slick with moss on boulders
and lichen stretched over tree trunks
hanging from branches of elderly
forest giants. Their roots interlace
among the terraced, rock-strewn
passage along the roaring, swollen
mountain stream rushing its frantic
passage to the river below. Birds flit
silently between branches, occasionally
halting to trill delight in the day's
unfolding drama. Two hikers carefully
descend as the trail winds away from
the stream, taking care on the boggy
forest floor with its deeply entrenched
network of roots and stones littering
the granite mantle of the mountain.