There are two ways to be fooled.
One is to believe what isn’t true;
the other is to refuse to believe what is true.
— Søren Kierkegaard
I’ve been there.
Stood at the pinnacle.
That was beforethe apocalypse.
water completely took out another
bridge across the Broad River,
this one to Chimney Rock State Park.
The park was closed.*
Took in the vista.
Seemingly timeless.
Looking through the
lens of my old Pentax
the Smoky Mountains
aptly named spreading
across the sky.
the Great
Smoky Mountain Railroad
stop in Dillsboro.
I’ve been there.
A quaint town.
Shops galore, the
Smokehouse Bar-b-que.
The engine’s
belching stack
matching the
train’s name
pulling into
the station.
“The Train,” as the Great Smoky
Mountain Railroad is known in town,
pay a lot of salaries in Dillsboro.
Its immediate return has not been established.**
The Biltmore in Asheville.
The flood’s signaturedrape its portal walls.
Its exquisite gardens?
Spared per reports.
In the past, Asheville
held a nightly summer
country fest of harmony
and hoe
down they named
“Shindig on the Green.”
Does the green still stand?
the flag at Chimney Rock [was raised]
… as a symbol of hope and
strength for all of Western North Carolina.***
I’ve been there—
global warming
was still struggling
to earn a name.
Epigraph sources:
Kierkegaard-popular translation of quote from Works of Love (1847).
* Helene damages North Carolina Tourist Destinations.
** Dillsboro pulling together after a lashing from Helene, The Sylva Herald.