Smuggler’s Notch 2012 Travelogue, Part I
Haibun Poetry
Aquatic Massage
Hot water jets pummel my back. Steam rises off the water into the cool air. Madonna and Sterling tower above the Mountain View condos bordering the Courtside Pool.
The aches of a five-hour drive fade. I almost forget my name.
cool mountain air
missing only a filled
champagne glass
Ver Mont Grande
A line of young sycamores stand as a shield wall before us. Their opponent looms high above, a grandfather playing ogre for his amused grandchildren.
Mount Mansfield, all covered in Pine, Spruce, Maples, and Oak — all looking like broccoli heads at this distance — can swipe the sycamore line away with a wave. Only the blanket of cumulus and its sporadic rain subdues Vermont’s tallest mountain.
hidden sunlight
burning charcoal fills
the cooling air
Day Hike’s End
We reach Rumrunner’s Hideaway after descending Morse Mountain. An excited blond pre-teen bounces off of a trampoline into freezing mountain water.
under Madonna
an adult or child
asleep on the swing?
next: Smuggler’s Notch 2012 Travelogue, Part II
more by FRANK J. TASSONE
photograph by Samuel Zeller
