~
Flagstaff
.
Thirty miles north of Sedona
lives the summer homes
of most desert dwellers, and the shadow
of Arizona’s highest peak.
.
We’d come to ‘Flag’ to climb Mt. Humpheys
the day of rest before
found us lolly-gagging around
easily paved tourist attractions that left
us feeling empty.
.
We ate across the tracks before the train
bisected the city again
a hipster town, complete with
a university from the
historic landmarks
old hotels where New Years Eve
parties were spent watching
the pine cone drop
outside the Weatherford Hotel.
.
Humphreys began at the low pine spread
easy, slow switch-backs in the Aspen forest
a bright green fern floor before the tall
white legs
.
Careful steps climb for two-thirds of the way
watching roots and rock trip your feet
until knee lifts climb you the
last tired third to the top
the sand and lava rock tundra
of a volcano we can make out
at the peak, over the rock scramble
blew one million years ago.
.
A live hive by the top
small hungry flies at 12,000 feet
mountains south of us were draped in pines
a soft carpet of Aspen lies in the valley
crooks below the mountain.
~
~
