Alpine Moose

A long drawn silence hammers down
the lengthened shadows of this wood,
holds the alpine ether still
and tends the musk where once he stood.

Inadequate temporal witness I,
stumbled through his summer’s bed,
where by the sweetest creek side hush
I chanced upon the great one’s stead.

He rose in contemplation’s hold,
towering tall before my stance,
his ancient eyes of knowing claimed
this startled man with one kind glance.

Yet for a single moment stood,
as if my pounding heart to quell,
then turned through grass and broken briar
to alpine depths he knew so well.

In silent shadow’s ebbing wake
this mountain stream returns to ear,
relents to ether’s melting patience,
holds me awed and frozen here.

written in recollection of the moose I encountered, face to face, Aug 2013, Deadman Pass, CO.