A Day in the Mountains

The Photographer

We passed each other on the trail
like a set of double yo-yo’s,
one stopping to photograph chiming bells,
passing the other admiring stands of bistort.
She pointed out a patch of alpine phlox, almost
stumbled over me as I bent close to the ground
photographing yellow stonecrop.
And so we went up the winding trail,
surrounded by dizzying abundance of
larkspur, monkshood, old man in the mountain,
and shooting stars.
At home, a picture reminds me of the day, but
never captures the transformative experience
of a day in the mountains.