We’d seen Tonto on TV
dismount, kneel,
press an ear to the prairie
and advise The Lone Ranger
how many buffalo, how far.
A good trick
every cub scout should know,
though the only stampedes in our neighborhood
were occasional locomotives
charging across town.
And we’d been warned about trains.
Kids caught on the trestles,
stepping tie-by-tie
when the big black beast
rounded the bend and trampled them.
We stooped to lay our ears
on cold rails, listening
for the clack-clack-clack
of unseen iron horses,
gondolas of pulp logs
from mills nearby.
And stood, squinting into the distance
like Tonto,
claiming for certain
an angry herd of boxcars
were headed our way.
___
As founding editor of Many Voices Press, Lowell Jaeger compiled Poems Across the Big Sky, an anthology of Montana poets, and New Poets of the American West, an anthology of poets from 11 Western states. His third collection of poems, Suddenly Out of a Long Sleep (Arctos Press) was published in 2009 and was a finalist for the Paterson Award. His fourth collection, WE (Main Street Rag Press) was published in 2010. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council and winner of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize. Most recently Jaeger was awarded the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award for his work in promoting thoughtful civic discourse.
Thursday, March 29th, 2012 6:29 am
Categories: Issue 5.4, Poetry
