by Tricia Knoll
Waves of bluster rain roll down the blacktop hill.
People at the coast fled a tsunami but here
it’s rain and chances for more rain: 100%,
as if the sky knows that Ursula Le Guin
is gone and we’ll be left with her worlds
apart, a few cats, and first-edition books
we bought because they took us away,
saved not to start a pricey collection;
some things we never let go.
We took medical care into our own hands
and voted big-time to tax hospitals and insurers
to keep Medicare for people who need the most,
have the least, and from whom much was taken.
In the women’s locker room, talk took today to
old ladies’ pot parties with lessons
on what works best, the reason being
that if the old Oregon ladies are willing to stand up
to the feds, by god, someone better listen.
Ursula was one of us.
Tricia Knoll has been an Oregonian since 1971 though real Oregonians make a distinction on whether you were born here or not. Sometimes it's a wild ride living on the left coast. The forests burn in the summer. The land slides in the winter. Earthquake faults are just a few miles away. Our Senators are Democrats, and the wine just keeps getting better.
