Peak Dream

I once stood alone,
high in the Rockies,
astride the Continental Divide,
backpacking strong, vision questing.

From that majestic purple place,
I could see the amber waves flowing
to the jungle shores of Asia where green
jungle lit with American flame, screaming and

stripped of human song. I wept and
railed and shook my fists and swore
a permanent oath. By my will and effort
this war will give way to peace and beloved

community. By my will and by my love
and by my effort there will be a great awakening.
Americans moved by a new sense of the promise
of peace will walk the land and tanks,

festooned with flowers, will crawl beside us.
The air up there was clean and cool and thin
and, up there, I was godlike and, as happens,
wrong.