Crossing the High Sierra

Annie and I cross the High Sierras on foot,

the way John Fremont did all those years ago.

We have his grit, but resolve never to kill

any prisoner taken in battle

as the price of our ambition

even if we have no room.

Annie is more interested in drawing wildflowers

than making war anyway. She captures the emotion

of this place in high summer,

the way it makes you turn inward,

the way you get that church feeling,

the one you always wished you’d found in mass

when the priest would swing his mitre of incense

but you never did, and that was the reason

you knew you had to leave it behind.

In the evening, as the light is coming down,

we look across the valley and spot Fremont’s ghost

crossing again for new territory and treasure.

We decide right there that if we take prisoners

in battle, we will treat them with dignity, even love.

We will give every enlisted man

the privileges others save only for officers.

Their letters to their wives and children

will be full of hope. They will resolve to fight no more.

From Crossing the High Sierra from Cholla Needles Press.