October 15, 2025

The Flight Out of Bozeman

I.
Thank you
for
this loveliness
this smallness.

The mountain majesty
trod underfoot
happens so differently
from the majesty
taken by air.

Altitude dizzies
in either place,
but a different awe
is stirred.

One comes via
strain, muscle,
lack of air --

The other through
the fantastics of flight --
A god's eye view,
the optic soul.

II.
Eventually, though,
snowcaps give way 
to brown, convex plain;

to the occasional
metallic wink
through amber dust;

to slithering rivers
making fertile
the field,

proselytizing life –
as both means
and end.