Return to Montaña Blanca

a promise fulfilled - 

a spontaneous return to Montaña Blanca

in a fresher season we climbed and we saw

the mountain transformed 

shed now the dormant gold

sheathed in verdant green
and a weaker, paler, thinner light

now paints the volcano's face

new grasses and fresh flowers 

lead us now to those high 

abandoned crater walls 

lava sone, fringed with prickly pear

an ancient temple fortress

where only the vagrant breeze

is now left to worship 

singing through its crumbling hollows

yet history still echoes in the crater

leaving whispers in its wake

so we tread the thin and twisting path

hiking higher, rubble crumbling underfoot

unafraid and unalone

retreading familiar territory 

now different yet the same

past the weathered wooden cross on high

and further on

with ancient eyes watching

'til finally the small satellite station 

space-age retro rusting concrete

and just beyond to the south

the stillness

just that vagrant breeze again

as the views across the island

slowly ground us in this moment

as our primal breaths stir

as the clouds gather in our bones

as we sit upon this weathered rock

as we press our hands against the ground

as we feel the earth beneath our feet

forever changing 

under cloud shadows

creeping time now hurls us forward

then backward again

wanting the same thing

and so we are intimate here

briefly semi naked and alone 

together on high, the restless dance

of what was once and what will be