Big Sky and us

 

opening unto the sky

Montana is “Big Sky” country,

where the heavens open up to pull our petty frailness

into opening larger, fuller,

our souls swell to reach to match

how big the universe is,

that’s how I feel in the high mountain West,

I feel my frailty,

but every Engelmann spruce pulls me with it to pierce the sky,

every tree that holds against the fall at the edge of a cliff,

every flower that races to bloom and spread itself over mountain and valley,

every animal that strives to be itself

and uses the niches available to reproduce and thrive,

all of them open me larger,

we almost killed off the bison,

like we did the mammoth and the giant sloths,

we are torn about the wolf:

some of us fearing another predator 

who might take our livestock, our livelihood,

others of us wanting to share the table,

for to us family is of the soul as much as of the genes,

the high mountain West pulls me into it,

so that my heart and spirit can soar,

and I hope to feel as big as the sky.

by Henry H. Walker

August 2, ‘21