It doesn't take your breath away,
seeing the massive volcano-mountain,which you think you're used to seeing
if you live here. Slate blue hide
slathered in creamy snow year-round.
A cone of stone dwarfing plain
and mountain range. Yes, a geologic
giant that rose from explosion, has
exploded, and will blow up again.
Seeing it makes you slow your breath--
you, who needs to breathe each moment.
The mountain breathes in millennia.
On its schedule, you're nothing. A
farmer in a valley near the mountain
told me his family was digging a well
in the silt-and-lava soil and hit the tops
of ancient fir trees the mountain
had obliterated with spewed lava.
Maybe you ride by the mountain
on a bus rolling on a highway.
There it is, casually surreal, just
too damned big. You're nothing
looking at something.
hans ostrom 2023
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