The Boys of Mount Baldy by Stephen N. Chaffee

in November of ‘58
three Boy Scouts
with elfin innocence
didn’t know
of an arctic-like storm
barreling hard and fast their way

Tucsonans David, Mike, and Michael
plodded up Old Baldy Trail
hopping over boulders
lungs on fire
racing for the summit

unprepared and lost
they slogged down Temporal Gulch
through waist-deep snowdrifts
daylight gone
life slipping

steep icy slopes
pulled them down
so cold
lost all feeling
went to sleep
didn’t wake up



* In memory of David Greenberg, 12; Mike Early, 16; and Michael J. LaNoue, 13.

Stephen N. Chaffee's poetry has appeared in Deep Wild Journal, Black Poppy Review, Eunoia Review, Florence Poets' Society Review and several anthologies.  His first book of poetry, The Arizona Trail: Passages in Poetry, was published by Wheatmark (2018).  Stephen likes to "exhale routine / inhale wildness."  He calls Arizona home.