Passage 11.
High speed quad
piercing wind
pleasing fear
frozen drop
tingling balls
skreet skreet skreet
four-foot wide
ten-mile trail
sucks us in
double psych
powder turns
sssshhhh sssshhhhh sssshhhhh
gradient good
pronounces Steve
calming me
dancing trees
thumping heart
bump bump bump
nods and looks
tele turns
moving rocks
throbbing heart
Oh my God
pocket
pocketa
pocketa
bobcat tracks
furtive eyes
swooping right
poling up
leaping heart
crunch crunch crunch
sudden plunge
weightless whee
where are we?
GPS fades
Steve says now
wheee wheeee wheee
don’t think– go
goggles brush
pine branch low
hands in front
V- shaped shield
vroom vroom vroom
clear a path
squatting down
tucking up
schussing jump
missed the bump
schhrump schhrump schhrump
swivel hips
criss-cross tracks
Steve bends knee
skis and pops
out of pow
whump whump whump
Steve’s most fun
since he played
Burning Man
cheek is scraped
tearing burns
whop whop whop
skis scribe turns
herringbone
thumping heart
Achilles
tendons pull
uh- oh-uhhhhh
squalling snow
whiteouts here
ski by feel
ground looms up
thighs to chest
fffff-fffff-oooomp
overlook frames
Mt. Washington
path to right
shows a light
not to fear
big paw prints
am I stopped?
whose tracks are these?
Agiocochook
Great Spirit’s home
all clothed in clouds
top so hidden
Ábenaki
Men of the East
never climbed up
Passaconaway
the great powwow
made water burn
made rocks move
made trees dance
turned himself
to flaming man.
In winter’s grip
green leaves dried up.
Powwow did burn
an old dead leaf
keeping ashes
dipped in water
letting it grow
a whole green one.
White men came
in numbers more
than all the leaves.
Great Sachem, he
could not restrain
his clan’s young blood.
Fading,dying,
sighing, praying
he relayed
Great Spirit’s call
as it whispers
me now: “Peace, Peace
the only hope
of your race.
We are few
powerless
before white men’s
fire and thunder.
We must bend
before the storm.
Old oak trembles.
Its branches gone.
Its sap froze up
It bends it falls.
Peace, Peace,
with the white man”
commands the Great
Spirit. It is
the wish, the last
wish of Sachem
Passaconaway.
Steve points up
with his finger
to heaven’s height
transporting him
to Agiococook
on a snowy sledge
pulled by wolves.
