My friend has his coffee to take on the road
And a special seat cushion ready for our long ride
And off we go on our day trip one morning in May
Traveling together northwest into the Catskills
Going to where the West Branch fills the reservoirs
Providing drinking water for everyone in New York City
So clean no purification treatment is needed
Going to the watershed where Webster Brook flows
Checking on the uninhabited cabin set next to the brook
That fronts on a series of small waterfall cascades
Immersing ourselves in the sights and sounds and scents
Swept into a ten thousand year time frame
The erosion here since the end of the last ice age
Cutting a smooth bottom through the sedimentary shale
An inch or more every century to judge by the wall
Carved into the rock face beside the stream
We will stay for just an hour or two
Before we retrace our steps back to our lives
Near that downstate city that drinks from the brook
But while we are here we indulge in a daydream
Imagining what it would be like to stay by the brook
Drinking in the beauty unseen by anyone
Warmed by a wood fire at night
Able to look up and see the Milky Way
A reverie that hints at our unlived lives
Not the reality of our advancing age
As my friend steps carefully across the brook
A bit unsteady balanced by walking sticks
I brought those sticks along for him to use
And sent him home with one stick afterwards
To take on his daily walks and remember
The feeling he had crossing the brook
