<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">2020 Walk to Salt Water</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i class="">When they go low, we go high. </i>Michele Obama</div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class="">How low can you go? </i>Chubby Checker</div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; min-height: 12px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class="">I.</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A spring-loaded clip </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">unchains the first gate. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Our path heads for </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a grey volcanic outcrop,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">reminder that this bay </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">marks the fault line </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at our country’s edge.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What relief to leave behind </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the morning paper stories </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of this small “p” president. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Of how he’s sending troops.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">More troops to guard against </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">assemblies of his citizens</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">petitioning their government. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">No, this afternoon we navigate</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the gopher-riddled pasture ground </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">among pot-bellied angus, huge </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">quadrupeds that prance away </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">from us on tiny hooves.</div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class="">II.</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We come to the second gate </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">encrusted on both sides </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">by poison oak a well-oiled</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">green the red is overtaking.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">My hand threads around </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the post, unhooks the snap</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and the gate swings wide. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Buttercups are humming</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">gold, color of truth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Unwittingly the mind snags </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">on the contrast with this </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">very small “p” president;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">he who made the Limbo </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the Official White House </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Dance by simply standing </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">there in place and speaking;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">he who fabricates alternate facts</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">repronounced by the invertebrate </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and/or blind loyalists he dupes</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">with nanoscopic honesty;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">he who does- or can-</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">not read and yet rewrote the book </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">on lies told while in office.</div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class="">III.</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The third gate clip missing </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">its spring wants fiddling with.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We take note of and sidestep </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">bobcat or mountain lion scat </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and hew to the trail’s contour </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">along the landscape slope. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A light wind carries my attention</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">across the field to purple asters, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">yes, color of kings and queens. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What grand irony how this </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">smallest of all possible “p’s” </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">president tells the world over</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and over that he’s the greatest </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">creature in the sea of life</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">when he is but blubber.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Nevertheless, this year again </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">he’s poisoning the well,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">ranting how his opposition </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">schemes to cheat him out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of his imagined reelection.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Thus he delegitimizes ballots </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">that could well be delivered </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">by the US Postal Service </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">which he works to unravel</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and thereby steal the vote.</div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><b class="">IV.</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The early fog is lifting </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">off the ridge―sky blue </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">infinity comes into focus.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">We look upon salt water</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">although I refuse to weep.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Today’s gift of clarity moves me </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to ask, with all humility,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">O Lord, if one there be: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Grant that this imposter fin-al-ly </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">be made to go stand someplace else, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">anyplace besides the office he holds </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">down with bogus bone-spurred feet;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Grant that every single eligible </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">person registers to vote;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and when the time does come</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Grant that they do.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Bill Greenwood</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></body></html>