on a journey made...

They two were walking slow
On the soft green grass below
Moist and cool and full of life...
Isabella at this point thought it ripe
To ask Francesco about Life...
About his journey made to its root...
She thought she should...

They had been walking on the green
For half an hour they had trodden fine...
Felt life under their feet...
And into its coolness they had dipped...
Their soul...

So...
She asked:
'Frances...tell me about
The journey that you took
Out of any text book...
The journey that made you so complete...
Can you please show me where la radice did you meet?'

At this query
Francesco stopped
Treading barefeet
On the grass...

He looked into Isabella's blue blue eyes
And smiled...
'you want to know?'
Isabella readily nodded...
She knows she has also plodded
In her own ways...
She knows she has also made
A journey within...

'bene...'
Francesco started...
'let's first sit
Stretch our tired legs
On mother earth...
The benign one
Full of this morn's calm
As caused by Him...'

So they sat...
Both
On the grass...
Francesco placed his palm
On Isabella's ...
As if he was going to take her
To the journey...

'Geographically...
It is 35.7598°N,117.3353°W...
The Searles lake
An endorheic basin
A dry lake...
In Majave desert
Of San Bernardino county...
Length as good as nineteen kilometres...
Width thirteen perhaps...
A lake...
Full of arsenic...
And spectacular tufa formations
And H2S...
But...
There we found...
Bryophytes...
And diatoms!
The producers of food!
Can you imagine what hardships they withstood?
And how they went against every odd?
How they being blessed by God
Struggled to be
The producers of food?
Can't you see?
That's la radice...
The Root...'

Saying this Francesco stopped...
Taking long deep breath...
Oxygen...

Isabella smiled
And thought she should lean
On her Francesco...

'and what happened after that?'
She asked...
'i met Him...'
Francesco was prompt...
'and after that?'
Isabella wanted to know more...
'met you...'
Francesco murmured...

The morning cool had a gentle godly breeze...
The grass cool lent all the peace
And calm...

The journey seemed really long...
And yet unfinished...