March Visitation

It was evening when they arrived,

the first dark form emerged

from the lip of one of many pools

collected on the ice in this too-

warm weather. I looked out and down

from our cabin window, caught

the movement and the tall shape,

thought What strange animal

is this? before it registered: human.

Unaccustomed to company this time

of year, I was trying to construe

what coyote, wolf, or bear could have transformed

into a biped. Later, the months of sweat

in their clothes and boots mingling

with the scent of soggy leather,

after they’d showered, fed,

and spoken of their long and strenuous trek

—by raft, by skis, Seattle

northward: B.C., Southeast, over

rivers, Icy Bay, past glaciers,

the Copper Delta, into the Chugach;

Manker Creek, then Anchorage,

around the arm, down

the west side of Cook Inlet,

through Lake Clark Pass, to us—

What, I asked, had been

the least appealing?

The Glenn Highway, they said.

They told me they could smell the road—

asphalt, rubber—long before it could be heard.

They were ancient animals arisen,

speaking a troubling, modern tongue.

--- Anne Coray


This might be the first fine work of art by a truly great Alaska artist about erin and hig's trek. I've told them I hope to write some music about their journey. I do hope Anne doesn't mind my posting this wonderful creation of hers here before I could ask. Maybe she'll sic her brother on me.