Sunday, July 19, 2020

1046. Breaking Camp - David Wagoner

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Having spent a hard-earned sleep, you must break camp in the mountains
At the break of day, pulling up stakes and packing,
Scattering your ashes,
And burying everything human you can’t carry. Lifting
Your world now on your shoulders, you should turn
To look back once
At a place as welcoming to a later dead-tired stranger
As it was to your eyes only the other evening,
As the place you’ve never seen
But must hope for now at the end of a day’s rough journey:
You must head for another campsite, maybe no nearer
Wherever you’re going
Than where you’ve already been, but deeply, starkly appealing
Like a lost home: with water, the wind lying down
On a stretch of level earth,
And the makings of a fire to flicker against the night
Which you, traveling light, can’t bring along
But must always search for.

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