Southeast
JUNEAU
Rainforest welcome:
skunk cabbage brightens wet trails,
fog stitches the woods.
HIGHWAY
Fjord currents ferry
skiers northbound for Skagway;
I will paddle back.
SYMPOSIUM
Truck with boats pulls in—
Hera finds me on the pier,
paws parting the rain.
HAINES
Hammer museum,
people exist between scars
of avalanches.
XTRATUFS
Brown boots everywhere—
locals wear them like logic,
the tall ones only.
RESCUES
Cold bites the dry suit;
T-rescues in the warm pool—
small rehearsed mercies.
BOTH
Skin north, stroke back south—
skiing, paddling, all year long;
here, there is no or.
THE MAUL
Bear spray at my hip—
a constant, like a cell phone
with no reception.
DISTILLERY
Whisky tastes of sea;
Alaskans drink like weather—
deep, sudden, stormy.
BILLIKEN
Walrus-tusk carving—
a PFD talisman laughs:
“things as they should be.”