Weighty and muscular, Rainier
is everywhere,
everywhere
a part of the sky; a horizon fixture
cast as iron and lead
the gluteus maximus of the Cascades
that in its singularity anchors
everything.
A stratovolcano of potential volatile explosions
and sporadic lava flows
Where time waits for its instability
to thrust
molten stone and pumice angrily
downward, tearing everything in its wake
as it did almost six thousand years ago
Smoldering and seething, that explosion erupted
and ripped a northeastern depression
that spanned nearly two miles
cleaving the estimated, once 16,000 foot apex
whose resplendent summit
scratched at that long-distant sky
Rock, mud, and debris rumbled heavily
and the Osceola Muflow created
a one hundred foot base to Puyallup and Auburn
The subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate
moving east-northeast
oozed lethargic, molten lava
and thrust volatile rock and ash
creating the composite, of gravitational breadth
and scale, that fills the sky
Now, lying below Rainier
are peopled views and tree-lined avenues
The constant fixture rests serenely,
rooted for all who see her,
to witness, marvel,
and venerate and film
a winter island in a summer sea
of flower- strewn meadows
veiled in evergreen forests
but…
the inherent simmer below her rock
skin and bouldered tonnage
is just shrouded and sleeping
shrouded and sleeping.
Wanderings and Reflections
