Sunday, December 10, 2006
The Upper Peninsula
Such strawberries as these
need to be seen
to be appreciated and must be
visited to be seen,
for they are too large and
too delicate
to bear much travel
themselves.
*
A cold ragged-trousered arrival
we had of it, into such weather
as would strip us clean
we thought, the bell bottom
bottoms likewise unhemmed
the better for to drag sticks
along like the furrowing bellies
of a fat clumping cat,
less walking than a kind
of controlled trip through
skinned coffeemate puddles
to unwaiting basements
and uncontrolled thaw.
To open the window
was to invite death, or if not
a long snooze in the Legions
of North Battleford, Cold Lake,
Pickle Lake, Humboldt--
anyway as far up as Basic Stick
had taught the locals to hip shuffle
& thus in appreciation buy beers
for the band including retinue.
Later Jerry Lee, Haggard, Kind of a
Drag & Kind of Blue.
*
It is the name
of a river, a canoe trip
down which
has all the charms
of wood life
without its discomfort.
*
Last dependant leaf
swinging like a rusty gate
or a kid's emphatic
no way headshake
getting carried away
& falling into an earthquake.