My favorite ride
From inside
An aluminum bird
Cutting across the sky
I know the every contour
As the wheat trickles out
To the wrinkles that presage
The rise of the Rockies
A brown expanse
Virtually nothingness
Before the thunderous front
Heaves up
Standing watch over a tundra plane
The forest blankets the Bob
Shimmering lakes dapple the crags
Until the fall in rocks rounds
Tumbling down into the valley
Half filled with the pristine waters
Of my childhood
The contrails line the Big Sky
As we follow the river down the Divide
And out
Following the trails of Lewis and Clark
Picking the way through a panhandle
Past the lone explosion of lights on the Palouse
Then all falls flat and drive for miles
Save the wide river
Cutting a huge crevice
On its meander to the pacific
White windmills pop up
Little spinning sticks on dry hills
Catching the breath of the sleeping giant
And his pointy tooth north neighbors
Looming on the Horizon
Shooting up in the distance
Lighting the way in the evening sky
With their crowns of white
Looking down at the spectacular sight
Terrain so close but impossibly rugged and strange
Two tones to announce
Take your seat
I pay them no mind
My face is pressed to plastic
Tracing the lines
The history of my life
Seen from the sky
On the approach and descent
Clearing the Cascades and bending
Over the explosion of lights
The darkened fingers of water
A ring of green rising round
I can smell the rain
Before the wheels touch the ground