High in the mountains
one hayfield remains uncut.
A doe’s ear twitches.
Bed of the Dry Fork
scored for tic-tac-toe: water fills all
the squares with zero.
Camp at the woods’ edge.
Morning sun brings rhododendrons
into your tent.
Steep banks, big boulders,
pools – everything but otters
in Otter Creek.
At Dolly Sods
when the wind slows down, it’s delicious:
wild azaleas.
When they cut the forest,
the soil burned off. Bleeding hearts
bloom among the rocks.
On two different hikes
I looked at lichens & left
the map in my pack.
Visit the Monongahela National Forest webpage for more information about some of the places referenced here, including Dolly Sods Wilderness (history here) and Otter Creek Wilderness. For a previous Via Negativa post on West Virginia, see Almost heaven.