The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from the Land’s End trail. Photo by Pest15.
Land’s End
This trail has everything:
views of the Pacific so full, the horizon scythes.
Squawking ravens. Foghorn.
Wide tableau of the fog-headed bridge.
Warning signs that keep you from learning the hard way
about fragile cliffs, sleeper waves, poison oak.
The Great Beach is never
more than a stone's throw from the Great Highway.
There is no getting lost here,
only nature half-tamed
as walking cliches in track suits
check their cell phones for signal.
Even the gulls crave McDonald's.
Even the surf knows Natalie Wood.
Here, you could dismiss the sea's cold limbs,
crumbling headlands, toxic perennials,
and, beyond the water, a green land so feral
it makes you forget you are part of it.