Richland Balsam

From these heights, you can see everything.
The richness of these forests and wild rivers
spreading out all around you
like a tablecloth spread over the table of God.
You can hear the music of a thousand waterfalls,
lulling the roaming elk and bear to sleep.
You can watch the waking of the rhododendron.
You can count the crowns of balsam until you lose count.
On this knife edge ridge line,
you can trace a continental divide
and watch streams flowing east into the wide Atlantic,
streams flowing west into the mighty Mississippi.
You can jump from peak to peak to peak
over the undulating landscape
echoing the footsteps of giants
long since turned to stone.
You can spread your arms and rise
over the valleys blooming with mountain laurel,
above the very curve of the Earth,
until you're like an eagle in the sky.