Sierra dust she sleeps now
the still December sky
her slate, vast unwritten
bespeckled with stars
shivering in twilight like
starving campfires
Orion's belt the stoop
Of her eternal asterism
twinkling
a crystaline comet of tears
From Clear Lake to Alder Creek
seasoned the long hunger
of boiled hides, tallow,
mice and juniper bark
in the grim winter of '46
And nourished her daughtes— |
Frances Elitha Georgia Leanna Eliza—
but even Tamsen could not safe
old George Donner
his axle broken, spirit fleeced
unpedestalled she
washed him
wrapped him
kissed him
buried him
and walked alone
over the mountains
to her celestial
one-room schoolhouse
and rang the bell
w furry 2002 |
