“Make me a left ski to push / a right ski to skoot!” Runo 13

CROSSCOUNTRY

 Cleveland Location Ski Area, Ishpeming, Michigan

Dry brown maple and oak leaves

Rattle, still on branches.

The creak of saplings

and silence.

Our skis rasp when we fling

on this crusted snow,

whir as we bend to hills.

Today the sky is colorado.

The light ends on gray rocks.

Mountain ash berries on their branches

look like Christmas decorations

through bare trees

near dark green cedar swamps.

Squirrels that glance across the track

cross trail with snowshoe rabbits

passing by

the hats of acorns on the path.

On a sunny day we go in sweater

Arms, bare-headed ,and the snow

tinsels grainy with slices of ice.

We should have used red wax.

We go fast, we crabwalk up the hills,

the shadows of twigs crisscross,

a black and white oriental rug beneath us,

shadows of the sides of the grooves

look like mountain ridges from a plain

and there is no rejection here

the ground receives the snow in lumps

soft and sculpted mounds

a casual overlay.

The grass insists near rocks and trees

Young boys we pass gleam sweat

on lips and brows

but we are fit,

we keep our sweaters on

and tramp beyond them;

we knew this place

before they made it public.

We stop to talk

about our lives

away from here,

we lean on poles,

face sun on slope.

Susan,

it is good to be as we are,

friends since we were three,

in love with movement on skis

on snow in woods.

We are this place’s children.

This healing is enough.

Dedicated to Susan Luoma Larson