Let's say

Let’s say there is a mountain and many ridges crowned with trees, some naked maples and alders, others spicy-green pines scenting air, then, here and there, a hemlock, stoic, its branches weeping at the tips,

Let’s say there is a stony stream with a water ouzel, that slatey, solitary bird, bobbing up and down on her twig legs.

Let’s say the sky is milky blue and it’s almost morning, and the leaves of wild violets, alien grasses, a seam of deer ferns are silvery with dew, and below the burbling water, a breakfast of stonefly nymphs for our birdy friend.

Let’s say you and I are not there, and this is not a thread of story I’ve woven into our heads.

Where is this place?

What goes on without us?