On a forest hike, a man and son stop for lunch.

The boy lies back on a rock.

They’ve planned to go home

soon after tossing scraps.

But the man has forgotten the way:

the clouds peek over trees; the woman,

once his wife, has left with someone else.

In his hand, the father holds a tangerine

and a tuna sandwich that’s been stinking up the car.

Let’s wait until we see a bird or until

we see the first star, the boy says of a forest

crippled by bark beetles and in need of rain.

The father wants so much.

He wishes he knew more than what’s on the news—

more about nature so he might tell his son,

this grows only for a few days in the spring or

this many years ago, this mountain was flat.

He wants to say it before telling the truth

about the mother. Where is the strength

promised from faith? There is a ripple

in the trees standing next to fallen trees.