Cloud shadows spackle the Absarokas
while the horizon shadow creeps
higher from the river, up
to the pastures, up to the benches,
edging toward the treeline
as the sun whispers off
below the Gallatins behind

Earlier a kindness of Ravens
(yes, I mean kindness)
ushered us into the Park
to find the first Buffalo calf of the year
red dog lazing with mother & aunties
among the sagebrush climbing the hillside
worrisomely free of snow

Every ridge & valley holds memories
of bears for Doug riding beside me,
binocs pressed to his eyes as we enter the Lamar
Two cousins, our annual birthday visit
to Yellowstone, both feeling our age
though so laughably young
next to these pale Precambrian cliffs