Sunrise Over Kamloops

A Magpie Tale

from my recent journey through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

Wheat Field with Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

The sun sneaks up in Seattle,

light filtering through layers

of cloud, needle, and leaf.

Some days only birds can tell

that dawn has come at all.

Along the Thompson River,

smooth hills hardly hinder

the whole sky's growing glow.

Still I resist rising

until the sun turns its spotlight

upon my thin tent door

and morning insists

that it not be ignored.



Brave

A Magpie Tale,

featuring the further adventures of the Scoutmaster

Sleep is light when out of doors,
for souls who rest upon the ground,
enclosed by flimsy fabric walls
which transmit every slightest sound.
'Twas just the wind?  What did they hear?
The snow bears other evidence.
The prints are fresh, the tracks are clear:
a bear has passed between the tents.
To enhance the Boy Scouts' lives
there's clearly but one way to go:
armed with pluck and pocket knives,
pursue the tracks left in the snow!

Scoutmaster

A Magpie Tale

He chose the winter camping site

and trod the trail some months ago.

He studied clothing which promotes

survival in the frigid snow.

He packed lightweight, nutritious food

for honing outdoor gourmet skills,

and coiled forty feet of rope

for practical knot-tying drills.

He calculated how to in-

still character in boys he loves.

With all that preparation done,

how did he forget his gloves?