Takhoma...Breast of Milk-White Waters
on maps called Rainier
Clouds bundle through the sky,
ocean’s children
northwest eternal rain
and clouds going inland
going inland
going
Grey and gray, boiling and churning
blue and brown, yellow
swirling against her feet:
Takoma
Takhoba
Dahkobeed
She drinks them down, spouts glacial rivers, milk-white
streams and rains the rest on all her roots and berries
Ocean calls his sons and daughters
his children who do not come home
they leave and do not return:
Ah’ Tah lah’ tah lah’
Come home, come
Ah’ tah lah’tah lah’
Takhoma silent, glazed, draws
her trees up her slopes
sends her waters through the hills
in white streams, green rivers. The children answer:
Yes, we come
We come
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Published in The Immigrant, Court Street Press, Seattle: 1984 and in Edge, Spring 1990
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Visit to the Old Homestead
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Rock Farm