YOSEMITE

Your features are hazy, a collection of textures and clips of color
I can recall the bursts of green and sepia, blues and greys,
Accented by unique formations of rock and abstracted stripes of bark
The moss that covered your floor and the bright stars that speckled your sky
The air that smelled of smoke and ash, and earth

At night, the cicadas wrote melodies that echo through trees
The rustle of leaves as the wood lay awake, and as I lay awake,
Glimpses of molten marshmallow confections scalding mouths and fingers,
And laughing until our sides pained beside the glow of scarlet hearth

Towering mountains overlooking valleys and creeks,
Overlooking plummeting falls that make hearts drop
A fossil of what once was, like species gone extinct
Withstanding the greed of man, a reminder of what once was

You ache of simpler times, when the only thing to fear was the dark
The howls of creatures under the dense cloak of forrest and shadow
But now we have grown and we fear a different unknown,
For we’ve learned with dusk is always the promise of dawn
The labyrinth of existence is a pitch-black that is endless