TRAILBLAZERS COME TO THE KOOTENAYS AGAIN

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The following poem (sans pictures) appeared in Ascent Aspirations' Agua Terra anthology, Fall 2006.


TRAIL BLAZERS COME TO THE KOOTENAYS AGAIN

Witch-finger striations tentacle down the mountains
Through lodgepole pines that cling there.
Once proud peaks show signs of rust
As if left too long in the rain.
The mountain pine beetle has come to call.

Humans, too, leave marks upon the land,
Then feign surprise if anyone objects
When water from plundered creeks
And ravaged rivers slows to a last-gasp trickle
Or finds another route.

Waves slap the shore as if to keep it in line,
In line for what? Another midnight move,
Of disappearing boulders, uprooted trees

While those who are supposed to be in charge
Attend to so-called natural disasters?
When they’re manmade, they look the other way.

And will it matter, in the the end?
The lake will continue to rise and fall
As it is able, now dams have tamed it.

Yet somewhere, nearly every spring,
A river overflows its banks, reshapes the land,

Reminds us that it’s Mother Earth who’s really in charge
And she’s about had it now with all the mark makers,
Trail blazers; she’ll blaze a trail, all right;
The conflagration will be seen for miles.

There’s a developer for you,
There’s a vision for the future.

©2006 Linda Lee Crosfield

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