Campground—Evening—Sault Sainte Marie
Big Wheels with beds and stoves and toilets and showers,
nooks and crannies holding everything needed
to survive the highway wilderness,
plopped down and plugged in along the river.
Terns and gulls chase speedboats chasing
a fat sun slipping into evening’s pocket.
The sky darkens and one by one doors open
spilling soft-bellied pilgrims
from aluminum and fiberglass shelters,
sloped shoulders slumped
beneath the burdens of leisure,
dragging lawn chairs to the river’s edge.
Fires, untended, behind them now,
they follow the fading light
of starlit freighters inching
toward deeper waters.
—Robert Nordstrom, Mukwonago
