Haiku Freedom (working title)

Haiku Freedom (working title)

Wallace Falls State Park
Beautiful evergreens grow
away from slick rock

But the teen is drawn to the
crashing
water of the falls
and the mist that moves the ferns
on the high bank,
away from the treading of feet on the
muddy, rooty path.
Away from the evergreens.

Black swifts’ nest drips with
the eternal droplets from
the long cold plunging

The teen views it from the railing
where signs sternly say to stick to
the trail.
Some signs say people die
from falls.
But the falls lure the girl
just to the edge.
The edge above the plunging
where the moss and ferns grow that
make up the black swifts’ nest.

The pull is forever
downward over whatever
the pull is freedom

The girl dips in a toe,
sees a rock free to the sky
and knows,
that is her place.
She was born to it and her
feet find the footing as
the cold mist finds her brow.
Freedom relaxes on her face and
she is alone with the Earth.

Gray sky and shadows
cold mist and icy waters
Numb meditation

The teen steps back
towards the slick mossy rock of shore
and slips and grabs and slips and flails
against the pull
towards the plunging
of the falls.
She doesn’t scream
as her head cracks
and her body crashes
past the black swifts’ nest
that cradles a single egg
that both parents care deeply for.

Her body floats past
hikers, evergreens, slick rock
with screams and sirens

Her spirit is swift
rising in mist passed cracked egg
Resting in freedom