Crazy Creek Camp Chair

Here's a poem of mine that appeared in the summer, 2008 Sun Runner Magazine Desert Writers Issue....one I've never read publicly but that I think is...wobbly yet precise in its depiction of a relationship between a teenage girl and her mother...(for the record, the 2010 Desert Writers Issue is about to hit the shelves...I'll post the link when it's ready.)

Crazy Creek Camp Chair


Backpacking trip, mother and daughter, furtive coyote prowling

for short grouse. We plan to arrive at dusk, trade places, she hikes

front, I behind. We are close to the same height and weight but



I am wobbly on this jagged mountain range, a ledge, 9,100 feet,

seeking a campsite. It's May, and she is tall, eclipsing me, it can't be

helped. I am in her long shadow now, frustrated by her easy pace.



I slip behind to find a walking stick, imagine how the swirling hot

chocolate I’ll prepare will ease the aches of sleeping on the ground,

but she, she loves to sleep outdoors. How deceived she is, by our



sixteen-year routine, mother and daughter bundled side by side

in matching sleeping bags, expecting me to erect the tent, prime

the stove, the usual exchange. The meadow is yet beaten down and



a fresh-cheeked sunset chokes the joys of flowery smiles peeking

through the snow. I know the creek will sleep tonight. I’m not so far

behind, and the old birds sing in the new grass with winter’s last breath.


Ruth Nolan, Palm Desert, copyright(c) 2008 & 2010 by Ruth Nolan

the issue, which features poetry and prose by other desert-based writers, can be visited at:
http://www.thesunrunner.com/Stories/Desert_Writers_Issue_2007/Nolan_DWI_07/nolan_dwi_07.html