On the unexpected vast mount,
a single path goes in all directions.
The hiker is lost, and signs are gone,
but from a hole close by come tiny steps,
drawing the eye to a small and shy white fur.
It pauses to explore, peering at him or the world.
Alright, if you’ve never met a human before,
what would you know about friendship?
Make sure and take it for safekeeping:
We’ll be led from the rocks and clefts
to endless flower fields, like heaven.
Arno Bohlmeijer is a poet and novelist, writing in English and Dutch, winner of a PEN America Grant 2021, published in five countries (US: Houghton Mifflin), also in two dozen Reviews and Journals, and in Universal Oneness: an Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from around the World, 2019.
