Expedition on a Western River (a poem)
We will spend days together
Share stories
Experiences
Meals
Scenes
Togas, tuxes, tails
Views
Rapids, water, injuries, smiles, swampers, team leads, groovers
Boats and jokes
On our floating RV
Our backgrounds as diverse as the flora and landscape we see
A pilot, a poet, a play write, a producer, a PT, an OT, a photographer, an actor, a coach, an oil and gas retiree, an engineer, an air traffic controller, a flight attendant, a hospital pharmacist, a hospice worker, a stock broker, a financial advisor, a wealth manager, non-profit workers, a lacrosse star, a ski instructor, a ski patroller, a property manager, a restauranteaur, an evolutionary biologist.
All thrown together on one river, on one boat
But all these titles, only will ever describe what they do
Not who they are.
Only 26,000 other people
Will share a similar event
In any given year
It will take 40 years
For 1 million people
To replicate our experience
Yet we are the only ones
The fortunate ones
We special few
1 boat
13 people at a time
Boat by boat
Story by story
Will drip through this canyon
Light up their lives
For a flicker of a moment
Then move along
To the next moment
And the next set of experiences
As they flit in front of us.
At at the end of this time together
We realize, as deep as we got in the canyon
We will never really know each other
We will know the stories
The descriptions
But not each other
For that would take a lifetime
And we have but 7 days.
Drink deep the days
Stories and swelling rapids
Smile
Breathe
And let go
