Once I watched them drift eastward

from the summit, a day-long hike

up Pedernal, she a volcanic relic,

worshipped in her past … and still

by those of us who look for meaning.

That day I drifted eastward

beneath such inevitable travelers below me,

they impelled by earth-turn and air currents

and jet stream. That day I stood high enough

to become a watching-station,

I dreamed myself empowered to understand

my place in the scheme of things

as seen through God’s omniscient eye.