By Necessity

Sitting alone in a hotel suite, spread out on top of a hard bed with torn notebook papers covering the comforter and the sun setting outside of Sioux Falls and feeling inspired, charged.

Haven't eating anything but trail mix and ground cherries from the downtown farmer's market so perhaps that has something to do with the way the world looks right now, vibrating and soft around the edges. Television news passes in and out of my auditory periphery; ambitious men and women preaching for power, games and gossip and the falling price of corn. I need to do laundry, eat a meal, shower ... will probably go for a run before any of that. Cut the chords with my own momentum. Maybe grab the butternut squash someone planted along Skunk River, catch a few innings of Little League where the trail wraps around a playground and park, collect smiles and wild sunflowers.

Shoes, shorts, shirt ... paper and pen.

I am alive, for this I will celebrate. Me, you, us. Avocados, river stones, wild-flowers, grape juice, wolves and stars ... beginning with I and ending with love. Let the wind whistle between pauses and dust collect after every thought in the hopes that a mountain may one day rise out of those dear spurs, burps and flashes.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. ...