Southeast

Poems composed on the Marine Highway ferry to Haines.

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Juneau

Rainforest welcome:
skunk cabbage brightens wet trails,
fog stitches the woods.

Marine 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.

XtraTuf

Brown boots everywhere—
locals wear them like logic,
the tall ones only.

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.