Nicholas Lee James Kohut

Oh yea, I was in Alaska last August…

Are we at the border?
Is it quite possible,
up there - over
the ridge - lays what
we’ve been trekking all
this way for?
Have we reached an end?
Have we finished the race?


The fog pulls back as the
winds from the coast climb
up these hills we have known
to be speckled with life
and dirt from rocks
eroded so long
before our time.
The ridge tapers off
and the sounds of yet
more wilderness
whisper, trickle
all the way down to us.


We’ve only just commenced
a journey yet to have
a conclusion.

We’re all waiting down here-
waiting for the spectacular show
to rage on, to capture us
in the awe of its performance.
And in that speckled mirror,
we’re all waiting for
something different.

There are howls and cries coming in through the windows here
and all I can think about is home,
out there where even in the mountains crawling and
in the night sky flying, up above our earth,
silence is the noise of our home.