EXPECTATIONS

Forgetting it's dawn
with its daily tasks
and the hands at five A.M.
on my grandfather clock
as I leave for Vermont
feeling alive
carrying my sax
along these woods
of leafed Maples
not with a condemned look
at any frog or toad
where pines,mimosa ,
phlox run by Skylight
Pond Trail head
near Goshen Brook road
but who asks anything more
as we climb ever closer
in the morning fog
to the Green Mountains
and relax on nature
where bees are whirling
by the Evergreen trees
and a phalanx of birds
are basking in the sun
after the fog lifts
from a gaunt sky clouds
and when first light is done
by river beds
feeling famished
I play riffs on my tenor sax
our fearless crowd is to dine
with some plain, cheese Danish,
and almond croissants
with bottles of red wine
delivered to other tourists
watching robins rise
over our heads
until we are finished
standing near by to visit
a poet from Montreal
at the French restaurant cafe
near an ice fishing pond
amid these waters of Vermont
as birds fly in branches
amid a breeze from birch trees
as our crowd is searching
near by a park bench
thrilled at a dog rescue
of a slippery shih tzu
by Lake Champlain
when our prayer wishes
will not delay but rock true.