DAY 16 ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH GRANDDAUGHTER

DAY 16 ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH GRANDDAUGHTER

Peeling a Cara Cara orange

I hand her Cold Mountain poems

and she opens the small book

picking one at random

reading in a hurry

she’s ready to ski

humoring her grandpa

The mothership is a refrigerator

cold I eat the orange

cold my nose running

she’s gone already

for her first run

I forget to put

mole skin over the bone spur

growing out of my ankle

people ask about the cold mountain

way you can’t get there

by driving Highway 12 west

beautiful thing

look at these cars in the parking lot

last day of winter

clouds, flurries, sun

shine breaking through breezy

sunglasses foggy

can’t see dragons through trees

my heart, my heart

the nurse tells me

I have the heart of an athlete

mothership log knows

this heart it’s more

like Sammie’s more like Dheezus’

How did a North Dakota boy

find this mountain pass

Jim Bodeen

19 March 2021

Mothership