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tree meditations and others 243
But here sea haze to right,
Mountain chasm to left,
Against their small clearness.
ii
Miles, and nobody, then
Two helicopter crews,
Machines idling nearby,
And this whole back country
Seems theirs -- they criss-cross it
As they please, their faces
Interested, easily
Looking out over it.
iii
More miles, and I wonder
Am I lost? A deer stands
Quietly in the road,
A fl owering up, it seems,
Of the dust of the road
At just this moment,
And the road itself wild.
The deer walks off , down the slope.
iv
Down steep, tight curves, jolting.
A strange rattle starts up
In the steering column.
Mudholes from the oozings
Of roadside springs. And there,
The shine of the river
Winding in the open
Valley. And no one down there.