on the Camino
walking the incline
through a forest of oaks,
I am drunk on the intangible:
friendship
connection
empathy
love
See what I mean? I am burdened
by their heft. Taken together,
less than an ingot’s worth.
Yet these are items I take with me
and trade them for a nod.
I’m sure death is a door,
and some days I hear the hinges
creak, the dark peeking out.
Rich is the soul burdened
because he doesn’t understand
it all.
Frank H. Coons is a veterinarian and poet living Colorado. His work has appeared in The Eleventh Muse, The Santa Fe Literary Review, Pilgrimage, Pacific Review, Pinyon Review, El Malpais, Fruita Pulp, the Eleventh Muse, Caesura, and elsewhere. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, and in 2019 was nominated for a Pushcart prize. His first collection of poems, a chapbook, Finding Cassiopeia was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2013. His second book of poems, Counting in Dog Years was released in 2016. Both books were published by Lithic Press.
