I run alone.

Cold air fills my lungs

as I breathe in deep,

the beauty that surrounds me.

I escape the noise and enter an archway

of delicate branches laced in white,

on the Pumpkinvine Trail.

Quiet nature beckons me forward

into my own sense of wild peace.

I focus my gaze into the distance

that seems to echo with each crunch I take.

I run alone,

but I follow a trail of footprints,

and leave my own steps to be discovered by another, tomorrow.

*Update: 2/9/19  “Footprints” was awarded 3rd place in the Pumpkinvine Poetry Contest by the Friends of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail