2010 Wyoming Writers Contest Winner - TRADITIONAL POETRY

Trillium Ovatum

by Cornelius F. Kelly

Trillium Ovatum

Santa Cruz mountains, Monte Bello trails,

Stevens Creek footpath, San Andreas Fault:

hiking through country where nature prevails,

we'd sharpen our senses and frequently halt.

The silence between us, like underground plates,

held steady through morning, preventing a rift

between our long-standing condition as mates

aware of the tremors produced by slight shift.

The ponds and the mounds gave witness to change,

yet the stream seemed a constant, and trees

were well rooted throughout the whole range;

and fragments of shale, geological keys.

The Western Wake Robin, a trillium alone,

was daring enough to make this her home.

—C. F. Kelly