| OCR Text |
Show Land and the river in bhe same gLance and bhey seem Like bwo greab ships passing ab night on a black and inberminabLe ocean, bhe land Looming sLow, processive, buLkyj; the river wearing, cutting, crumb Ling, into the cliff falling from the angled plane. DO TOU? because when yo took me north 1 wanted bo beLL you bhab somebimes bhe circles move oubward my knife richard bhrew ib fabher bub i didn't have bhe chance bo sbop him and now ib doesn'b mabber anyway because i saw bhe c i r d e s bhey spread outward in waves puLsing bub i didn't have the chance to teLL you bhab ab your fabher's you kept repeating over and over the same word ridicuLous you kept saying and i thought maybe you meant ridiculous that you brought me there but you said no and Later: i don't expect you would understand, then that word again ridicuLous and i t was getting darker and i knew we were going home soon and i stiLL hadn't t d d you aboub my knife and not knowing yeb you were Leaving me bo richard Lisa mobher whose blood gabhered in bright tiny p o d s below the tree where the bLood co-mingLed coursing again on itseLf Like a snake's taiL i saw bhem from behind the hot sticky Leaves she was on her back supporting him his back naked and patterned too the wind was warm in my face The wind bLew warmer, stronger and warmer. "Chinook," he thinks. "Blowing a thousand miLes from the ocean, stiLL warm, unchiLLed by the crush of snow and ice that is everywhere." He feeLs the f i r s t drop of rain against his cheek Like acid, painful and irremddial. The next one faLLs quickly, then another, buiLding the expected sequence u n t i l the sky is fuLl of rain. It hits the snow hard, meLting i t . He skiis on fee Ling the water soak in drop by drop, heavy. lLe feels as if with each glide he is being forced further into the snow, now soft beneath him. He i s consciously standing, straining upright against the burgeoning fieLd of r a i n . SmaLL pooLs of water begin to form in pockets on the surface. His skiis Leave a thin t r a i l of water in the a i r behind him. "Ah father, is this what you meant by ridicuLous? This slow, peregrine promenade of time that to you seemed such a sad waste? Was that your r i d i c uLous sprouting Like a garden before your eyes, the pLanting and the reaping ridicuLous, the freezing and thawing ridicuLous? No wonder you left. No wonder that sad and heavy brain of yours crumb Led under the weight, Like the carveH nut TI shaned vaLLevs Left behind in the gLacier's unredeemed wasbage. 13 |
