Deception Falls

On Stevens pass We had a stop At Deception Falls In the thick green alpine growth Home for ubiquitous, instant moss A brook violent, impulsive, young Cascades here and roars her way down Against mighty boulders of stones She can put several tons Of weight to crush any animal resistance Out of mortal existence And then slowly ages down her path To be serene, calm and quiet Where she meets The river Tye Like the Tao of the East Her last refuge When fingers Can play a note on her Soft as if on a guitar Strange things aging does to restless ones I looked at a sagely Douglas fir A presiding giant on her banks for an answer Who has perhaps walked down the path of fire A couple of centuries before When a forest conflagration or volcanic eruption Changed the ecological face of the place Beyond recognition He beckoned me To sit at his feet Under his saintly gaze And meditate Covered all over by moss Like a green man Unearthly from Mars Envied by other smaller trees That pined for the light of the sun Bent their way away from his spreading arms Like the sage of ancient Indian lore Valmiki*, on whom ants built their hill As he sat through ages pondering Answers to profound existential worries Oh, my limbs are already growing moss May it grow deep into my bones On this hillside of great symbiosis May I hibernate here and meditate A moss-man chrysalis listening to the gushing brook My way unto the stars And beyond them into the unknown Land of fluttering butterflies ___________________ *Valmiki is the Indian sage who authored the epic Ramayana. He was a hunter-robber in early life.