16.2.07
Poemas favoritos LII
Favorite poems LII
The Late Snow and Lumber Strike
of the Summer of Fifty Four
Whole towns shut down
Hitching the coast road, only gypos
Running their beat trucks, no logs on
Gave me rides. Loggers all gone fishing
Chainsaws in a pool of cold oil
On back porches of ten thousand
Split-shake houses, quiet in summer rain.
Hitched north all of Washington
Crossing and re-crossing the passes
Blown like dust, no place to work.
Climbing the steep ridge below Shuksan
Clumps of pine
Float out the fog
No place to think or work
Drifting.
On Mt.Baker, alone
In a gully of blazing snow –
Cities down the long valleys west
Thinking of work, but here,
Burning in sun-glare
Below a wet cliff, above a frozen lake,
The whole Northwest on strike
Black burners cold,
The green-chain still,
I must turn and go back-
Caught on a snowpeak
Between heaven and earth
And stand in lines in Seattle.
Looking for work.
