On Sunapee Ridge
That last night on the trail
in a lean-to high on Sunapee Ridge
you woke in the middle of the night
and lay there with the moon shining
down through the trees
listening to the night sounds
– the wind overhead, insects chirring,
your companions breathing around you.
And you thought of the next day
when you would leave the woods
after five days and over fifty miles of hiking
and go back to electricity and running water.
You felt a bit beat up climbing mountains
with a full backpack in your fifties
but you were glad you did it
and came through with nothing more
than sore feet, and bruised shoulders
from the pack straps.
There was no patch that would be earned
or any certificate bestowed for hiking
the entire Monadnock-Sunapee Trail
but those solitary minutes looking up at the moon
and listening to the wind were enough of a reward.
Brett Peruzzi lives in Framingham, Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in Boston Poetry Magazine, Muse Apprentice Guild,Gloom Cupboard,The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly,Modern Haiku,Sahara, Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry, and many other publications.
