Adirondack Weekend

by Tomas Todisco

 

Fall Camping

Barred owl at dawn

racing creek beneath our heads

super moon above

 

Trailhead March

Road-side raspberries

give your tongue a little hat

cars go rushing past

 

Elevating

Intoxicating

an olfactory ID

the smell of Abies

 

High Peak

So close to silent

hum of airplane in distance

ah, anthropocene

 

Descent

Burning quadriceps

fiery red foliage

casts a sunset glow

~

Tomas Todisco is a senior environmental biology major here at SUNY ESF. He loves botany and going on hikes to experience new plants. He’s not an avid writer but was struck with inspiration on Rocky Peak Ridge in the Adirondacks this past fall.

Featured image: Photograph by Tomas Todisco, October 2023.

Artist note: I’ve had the same phone for the past seven years now. My Samsung Galaxy S7 has yet to croak. Sure, she’s slow, takes awful photos, and overheats over the simplest of tasks, but I can still make calls, texts, use maps, and play music. So I’ll keep her. On the last day of September, my friends and I drove to the High Peaks to botanize and catch some fall foliage. Feeling bad that I couldn’t contribute to the Google photo album of this particular trip to the Adirondacks, I decided to write haiku instead.