Beautiful Valley

[My sister, Lori, in Cherryville, great horseback riding country}

Traveler
has reached a plateau
from which she can gaze
far across
a beautiful valley.

There is room
under this expansive sky
to dream golden dreams.

There is enough space
all around
to relax one's shoulders
and breathe
the breath she needs,
to deeply inhale
the smell of sage and
tumbleweeds.

She feels like
spreading her wings
and swooping across
the land below,
like a golden eagle,
like a shooting star,
like a caged-up bird
longing to be
where her kinfolk are.