Twelve days we work to cut the winding
trail through sun dappled forest to
the proposed burial ground on the
granite shoulder of Mt. Israel.*
On the thirteenth day, we clear the
tangled thickets and underbrush until
the sinking sun drops over the cliff.
Weary unto death, we stop to rest.
Our gaze falls below to flat farmlands,
glimmering lakes in twilight, and a
blue-hued mist, whiffling and drifting
across a fading sky without end.
Grand Sir, in his seventh decade, and
on his own land, following state laws
and traditions, nods in solemn thought,
and looks over his burial spot.
“Pass the word to the children,” he says.
“Soon I will make my last ascent to the
cloud capped summit in The Great Beyond.
Our new trail leads to The Other Side.
Here where I end is where I begin.”
*Mt. Israel is located in the Town of Sandwich in the State of New Hampshire.
Further, the mountain is on the edge of the Sandwich Range Wilderness Area.
The Burial Ground for Grand Sir is located on private land referred to as the
Mountain Pasture in old deeds dating back to the 1700s.
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