Trail Markers {a poem}

July 5, 2020
Day 114

These trees, this water
they don’t know me by name
nor can I identify the calls
though the birdsong soothes me
I find a spot safely away
from other people
the red trail markers look like hearts
and I remember
not for the first time
we see what we want to see
Oh, heart, I want to cry out
show me what I’m not seeing
along this dense path
ringed by more history
than I’ll ever grasp
So that when I emerge
dripping from immersion
swatting away black flies
the sun somehow even hotter
than before
I’ll be of some use in this world
Upright like the cornstalks
and able to receive and return
something true.