HIKING MONHEGAN

A deer trail tapers

to a dead end.

No view of the harbor, nor of the ocean.

Such a small island,

I must be somewhere.

No map.

Surrounded by tall pines

and a soft carpet of brown needles.

I’ve been lost in these woods before,

following a thinning path

as the thicket closed behind me.

There’s a field to the east,

through the brambles and low branches.

Surer here,

in the middle of nowhere,

than the familiar landscape

of my home

where I rail against the obstructed view,

not content to leave to faith

the promise of a grassy clearing.

Susan Davis