Walking up from the beach
Last of an early fall afternoon
Sharp shards of light and soft hollows of dark
Obscure and illuminate the steep uphill
Scrambling through the bony root-toes
Of firs and cedars less old than they look
Stepping between the slick knuckles
Finding soft purchase in the decomposing forest
Teenage boys louder than the few chattering birds
Echo into a general clatter of callowness
Like the distant barking of a dog, the roar of a car’s engine.