On Sand Knob Trail

prismatic glints from a spiderweb
catching the sun

as it moves through the forest
on slow stilts

ignoring the trail
an old colliers’ road

now a deep wrinkle
through the rocks

I rest against
an enormous hemlock

and study its dead companion
scarred by woodpeckers

like a mask with a few
too many eyeholes

I take off my shoes
press my bare feet to sand

from a 410 million-year-old shore
turned to stone

distant gunshots
punctuate the silence

there’s no view at the summit
of Greenlee Mountain in the summer

only the rock oaks’
interpretive dance

moving shadows
on a slab of quartzite

a hooded warbler teaching
its young how to sing

***
Rothrock State Forest
July 26, 2024

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