poem -- Alaska Marine Highway, September 28th, 2010
Alaska Marine Highway, September 28th, 2010
Bright houses strung like beads
on the border between grey water and
misty green hills,
I could melt away here, two plane rides
from the city of turnstiles and surveillance
humming with infrastructure and management --
Drink the rainwater spilled down every rock face,
find God enough in the salmon
arcing upstream to ecstasy and death.
You have felted yourselves in
with food and with music,
gifts to keep and those only borrowed.
Loose fibers trail from your backs
as we sail for more inhabited waters
crossing older strands that pull you on,
stretched thin by time and distance,
twisted true by the constant turning fingers
of love and worry.
Bright houses strung like beads
on the border between grey water and
misty green hills,
I could melt away here, two plane rides
from the city of turnstiles and surveillance
humming with infrastructure and management --
Drink the rainwater spilled down every rock face,
find God enough in the salmon
arcing upstream to ecstasy and death.
You have felted yourselves in
with food and with music,
gifts to keep and those only borrowed.
Loose fibers trail from your backs
as we sail for more inhabited waters
crossing older strands that pull you on,
stretched thin by time and distance,
twisted true by the constant turning fingers
of love and worry.