This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
El Nogal Trail
by Shelli Rottschafer
Going up is always hard.
My dog is lithe
I wish I had his pitter patter.
In the distance
road rumbles its echoing
reverberations.
The climb, green lichen dusted.
I suck wind while scrub oak
crinkles.
Crow soars in annoyance.
We’ve disturbed her roost
amid the piñón.
Along the keystone laid path
it’s clear we are not the first.
Scuffed tread and elk pellets –
a Hansel and Gretel mark
that will dissipate and
erode toward clusters of paddle cactus.
Those spines reveal a toughness
I have learned to keep close.
Why is it so easy to be a black sheep?
Lookout met –
legs dangle over precipice.
The city greets us through the haze.
The going down
is a knee-trembling
relief.
El Nogal Trail; “el nogal” in Spanish means “the walnut.” This trailhead hugs South Boundary 164. It winds along El Rio Fernando de Taos, then switchbacks in elevation. It rises to a ridge covered in piñón and scrub oak, which peers out over the town of Taos and vistas of Kit Carson National Forest, north towards Taos Mountain and west towards the gorge
Author, Educator, and Advocate Shelli Rottschafer (she/her/ella) completed her doctorate from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (2005) in Latin American Contemporary Literature. From 2006 until 2023 Shelli taught at a small liberal arts college in Michigan as a Spanish Professor. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry from Western Colorado University, Gunnison (2025). Now she lives and writes in Colorado and New Mexico with her partner and their rescue pup. You can learn more about Shelli and follow her work at her website: shellirottschaferauthor.com
You can purchase The Avenue Journal Issue X: Dogs in paperback at Bookshop.org, or, if you prefer it in digital format, you can download the ebook in .epub format for pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $9) at ko-fi.