Arizona High
Thin gray cirrus clouds
streak the sky as we amble
through a meadow of purple
lupine and black-eyed susans
with dark and pyramidic
Humphreys Peak rising
upward another 3000 feet.
We enter sweet pine forest
floors springing forth with
mushrooms of every shape
and color, white columbines
and purple penstemon.
A chickaree squirrel busily
shreds pine cones in search
of nuts as a sapsucker
jackhammers a tree trunk
high above in gentle winds.
Our trail twists and turns
at a steeper angle lined
with spruce roots and lumpy
rocks all the way to the
saddle where we discern
three or four false summits
obscuring Humphreys Peak.
Three hundred feet shy of
our goal I jam my boot on
a pointy rock to bruise my
arch, but I must, pain or not,
hobble to the highest point
in Arizona where the distant
Grand Canyon’s North Rim
spreads red on the horizon.
I can almost hear the corn
prayers for rain coming
from Hopi lands far beyond.