Camper’s Memories

Camper’s Memories

By: Husam (Sam) Salman

We hiked the path that led to nowhere

But back to camp and a roundabout defeat

Thru sun quenched summers and blistering heat

We have heard the snarl of a bear around camp,

Thanks dad for throwing away the honeydew in the

Locked trash…oh, and thanks for bringing honeydew

…to a camping trip!

We were forced to recite our weeks to our

Parents’ eager ears of hopes yearning to be heard

Only to splinter the ears with disappointment and disinterest

We wanted to cuss up a storm at our reality

Of tight quarters and no friends to talk us out of our

Newly found homicidal thoughts.

There in the morning of Barton Flats we rose

At the crack of dawn, though I didn’t understand why

We climbed down the mountain to the trout hatchery

…it was like fishing for fish in a barrel…but it was concrete.

The sport seemed lost to us, even in our dinner table

Delights of bellies full of fish and laughs from the

Tale of the day and arrest we were about to surrender to

Once our heads hits pillows light.

There, in summers past, we told our

Lives, like exposed brick or shaman

Unable to hide the truth. We were unafraid then

What eager eyes reached on those days,

For the unknown and never ending.

I grasp my pole now, for memory

And recollection, nostalgia in hands

These memories bring. Here, alone

In my garage, I want for a trip to recite

The laughter we profess those days.