Boardwalk

 

I never could have dreamed

of craggy snow peaked mountains

as the matter of fact backdrop

to the lakes and rivers of the west.

 

The skyscrapers that defined tall

would be a speck against them.

And the boardwalk that I trek almost

daily along Bellingham Bay

reminds me that I’m free

 

from childhood chains and expectations

city streets with altercations

smoggy skies like fabrications

and a life lived on cement.

 

Once I hitched away

from a place I couldn’t stay.

Did a hippie form of a ballet

from trashcan alleys

and their decay.

 

I see a boardwalk in a picture

by a lake that is a mixture

of rugged mountains and a walkway

like a doorway from dismay.

 

And when I got here

the world said play.