© roy ballard 2012

            Aging ski-bum

T

ime shapes the mountains, did you know

that rivers fresh with melted snow

are washing everything away:

the great rocks to the plain below,

to running sand beneath your feet

that slides and flows between your toes

where surf or soil and rivers meet.

Age steepens mountains, this I know;

the hillside and the high plateau

where I was free to sport and play

are now forbid for if I go

I find that I cannot repeat

the slides and flows beneath my toes

that in my memory are sweet.