D. H. Jenkins, New Zealand
Golden leaves float in halos of sun
as I hike with a full backpack alone
on a track only Muir and others
like him had known.
Clothes tattered, boots well worn,
I've searched these wild places
for years to find what has survived.
The red squirrel, the Mexican wolf—
gone. But the eagle has returned.
And the lofty bighorn sheep glares
down in the all quiet of noon,
aloof with Ice Age eyes.
Windless days, bitter nights in a flannel
sleeping bag, dreams of coming home,
I've given myself over to an older quest.
Although I've not seen her yet, I know
she lives: I saw her paw prints in the snow
last winter as I gathered wood.
I imagine her frosted striped face,
those fine dark rays of eyes,
her careful gait, that sleek motion
over blood-orange rock, a creature
living cautiously on the razor
edge of the wilderness.
Locals claim the last one died
long ago, has gone the way of ghosts,
or can only be found in the zoo.
But I've felt her presence
in the aspen's autumn leaves,
on the heated rocks,
and in the gusts of wind.
DH Jenkins worked as an associate professor of English/Speech for the University of Maryland in Japan and Korea for many years. His jazz play, Ti Jean, about Jack Kerouac, has been staged in Tucson, AZ and in St. Joseph, MO. Thirteen of his poems are set to music in the film Call From a Distant Shore, recently screened at the Helios Sun Poetry Film festival, Jan. 2021. Nine of his poems have been published in Jerry Jazz Musician, Autumn 2020/Winter 2021. Winner of the Iwakuni Poetry Competition, Spring 2019. He currently lives in New Zealand.
