You’ve never taken Sparta Road
   or kept an austere house.

On Lone Pine Mountain,
   you’ve never stood alone

or climbed its high roads
   to the peak above Virtue Flat.

You’ve never stayed in Bates,
   where the directory notes no

hotel, all lodging primitive.
   Days from now in Baker City you won’t eat

one baked cake, though near Deer Creek Road
   there will be yet another desiccated buck.

You’ve never tasted Huckleberries
   on Huckleberry Mountain or felt the wind

on Wind Creek Peak, but today you’ve made it
   out of Hells Canyon without stopping.

Laura Madeline Wiseman’s book Velocipede, published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press, is a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist. Her book Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affection with artist Sally Deskins published by Red Dashboard, is an Honor Book for the 2017 Nebraska Book Award.

Show Laura some love via PayPal at wiseman(at)waglerdesigns(dot)com.