Posted by Jenn Zatopek on August 4, 2026

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GLORY
– After Alicia Mountain

We found the cabin after dusk,
so many hummingbirds overlooking the valley.
I sang as the two-lane highway gave way
to cliffsides dropping swaths of green below.
Lily Lake shimmered blue in the afternoon sun.
We scrambled up the ridgeline, getting lost
coming down. There were ground squirrels,
chipmunk, deer, and elk. So many elk!
I couldn’t go to the restroom because of the baby,
a soft brown body, first steps. I really can’t explain it.
How happy I felt, so young. This was what I always wanted.
One sunset we gawked at a family of turkeys crossing the road.
We hiked a river of bluebells, felt thunder in the distance.
We sat at boulders tossed down in a landslide last century,
an old alpine lake streaming through meadows.
I watched parents helpless to contain their children
splashing in the river, speaking their own language.
There were lots of birds. Bluebirds. Western Tanagers.
Juncos. Northern Flickers. Robins. Red-Winged Blackbirds.
Up high we gasped as snow fell on the granite peaks while
green hills unspooled before us. I know nothing lasts.
I remember sagebrush touching me as I fell upward into sky.
When I sit still long enough, I can smell the pine,
feel the winds brush my skin with the windows rolled down.
The lashing of afternoon rains, how it rattled inside me like a drum.

Image / Rocky Mountain National Park