The Color Brown: A Poem About Wildlife From Our 90 Day Road Trip

After 90 days, the thing that has stayed with me most isn’t a view or a summit. It’s the wildlife.

The grizzly on the riverbank, the moose and her calf, the caribou guiding her young across the highway, the wolf’s howl cutting through the quiet, the salmon at the end of their journey. Each one changed how I saw something. I wrote this poem to hold onto that feeling of awe, and to say thank you for getting to share their world, even for a moment.

I am convinced I never saw the color brown
until I saw a grizzly bear on the bank of the river.

I recognized sturdiness in the moose cow and her calf,
and vulnerability in the caribou
guiding her young across the highway.

I heard quiet for the first time
when a wolf’s howl cut the silence around us.

I watched salmon reach the end of their lives,
driven by nothing but instinct,
and wondered if ours would be as strong
if we weren’t always searching for meaning.

I think of every encounter,
and all the ones that passed without record,
and I feel grateful to share this world with them.

Written by: Nicole