10 year old pioneer,

adventurer, mountaineer,

wonderer, wanderer,

philosopher, ponderer.

Setting out to stake a claim

on four cleared acres in a forest frame.

Spending time alone

with imagination and God

Hiking among brown eyed-Susans  daisies, milkweed pods.

Where mosaic monarchs prepare for their royal migration

to kingdoms in the south.

Waist high grass gone to seed

Dandilions, so buttery, yellowy they can't  possibly be called weeds

Flubbery-blubbery fumble bee

stagger-flying

stoned on pollen

bumbling inches off the ground

Making droning drunken static sounds

In search of another patch of purple clover.

10 year olds don't mean to disturb the grasshoppers

yet as he walks

they long jump to another leaf

or blade

or stem

or stalk.

For a 10 year old,

a late August day

in a secret favorite place

Seems as eternal as fantasy,

 imagination

 curiosity.

And four cleared acres in a forest frame

Is a universe waiting to be claimed.