Return to Colorado

There was something about the warm air,
the pine scent of it,
something about the innocent blue expanse of a cloudless sky,
something about smiling familiar faces awaiting me at the gate
that made me think of family vacations in the untamed West.

There was something about the rocky reach of Pike's Peak,
something about towering ponderosa
and quivering aspen making a stand,
something mirthful in the chuckling, gurgling cascading streams
that brought me back to childhood travels in the rugged West.

There was something about lazy daily breakfasts
      on a sun splashed patio
while cozily enveloped with pungent rustling pine boughs,
something about visiting pajama-clad the whole morning long
that evoked nostalgia for a girlhood
      my responsibilities had made me forget.

first published in Time of Singing

also published in FLOOR OF THE SKY Chapbook