Foreboding

They paused for Rocky Mountain
National Park on the way
Home after to failing to stay

The season they’d intended.
It was a detour, of course,
But an easy, soothing one.

At one point, they hiked a short
Trail over a lookout peak
Helpfully dotted with signs

Identifying wildlife,
Marmots and their predators,
For instance, and altitude,

And peaks on the horizon.
Reading one, she called to him,
Hey, guess how high up we are?

Over thirteen thousand feet!
At which moment, it occurred
To them both they’d been feeling

A little bit out of breath.
This is the highest ever,
For me, outside of a plane,

He said. Then they went back down
To the trailhead for the drive
To Boulder, destination

For that evening. Following
The highway through a ravine,
She pointed out a cabin

Clinging to a wooded cliff
And said it looked forbidding.
Can you imagine winter?

They both shuddered and laughed,
But later, he thought, maybe
That’s the way I want to live.