This work is copyright M.A. Mohanraj 1994, all rights reserved. Please don't repost this or make it publically accessible via FTP, mail server, or archive site without my explicit permission.
Permission is granted for one hard copy for personal use.
The line kept running through Michael's head as he trudged further up into the Berkshires on that morning, late in September. He shook his head, partly to clear away the mosquitoes that had returned with this brief spate of warm weather, partly in frustration at only being able to remember one line of the poem. He had overdressed, a city boy out in what passed for the wilderness of New England. The sweat dripped down the crease in the center of his forehead to slip under the rim of his wire-frame glasses and collect in small pools on his nose. This second day of hiking was easier, somehow.