It took me and my sibling a long time to figure out what to call our final campsite near the end, after I had accepted the job and we knew the trip was ending. We settled on calling it our 'dancing river paradise'.

Dancing River Paradise

May 12, 2025

The laurel creek is a place
(so I'm told)
where Eastern hellbenders have been spotted.
Rafting down rapids--
"When it floods, get out to Laurel River"

So I went there.

        and discovered

                a raptous junglegym.

Where brook trout swim sinuously through sticks
sun reflecting on their bellies,
and river otters lazily paddle upstream.

Everything is lazyyy
when a full belly is easy
and the trees grow orange with mushrooms.

Ginger
        Sorrel
                Cherry
                                I lick my fingers in scrumptuous delight.

Timid black bear, on your own for the first time,
we see each other.
Mama duck and her ducklings
onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten

How lush
        Verdant
                Bursting with life
from the frog chorus
to the spider webs
and the green, green leaves.

And alongside these wild denizens,
humans live here too.
A rock climbing anchor affixed to a cliff
downriver from class four rapis.
Graffiti on an old foundation
"Embrace decay" it reads.
A rope swing into the stone canyon.
Here and there, little fire rings.
People have stayed.

And if you follow the trail
almost all the way to the railroad
You can find our home--

On the shores of the gendle sandy beach,
snail shell settled,
a heaven's slice--
our dancing river paradise.