Today We Dug Out the High Tunnel
Contributed by William Schmidtkunz
The snow plowed roadsides
driving up buffalo mine road
only got deeper with every mile
garbage truck
hard on my rear view mirror
handling all the icy curves like nadia comanche
looking for murphy road in the ice fog
Pete's been at it for a while
hand shoveling snow five feet deep away from high tunnel
so all the snow on the roof has a place to slide
alys post holes up the path
pete says -
you forgot your shovel…
she turns around a few times
"it's down there by the gate!"
wanders back down
gets the brand new alaska industrial hardware shovel
saunters back
true teacher
there is a lot I could learn from that gal
We dig it out
Back in kitchen
dogs jumping all over me
sitting at kitchen table
while pete fires up the grill
wood stove lunch
i forgot to pray
alys gives the dogs a bone
settles them down
settles me down enough to eat
It's one of those days
when it was twenty below
and the sun lifted over the mountains
with everything but its heat
in a clear sky, end of year
above the mountains we call home
all painted in machetanz
*Fred Machetanz, Alaskan painter*