LIFELINE

After the first inch rain
I work the road
with big Cat loader tires—
three towed behind

            four wheel drive
            low range crawl
            smoothing ruts
            like icing a cake

keeping gutters clean
and runoff into draws.

Outside, inside
down the middle
two round trips
four miles clay, rock
and some d.g.—
plenty time to think
and look for life:

            quail, hawk
            deer and bear,
            somewhere cattle

this fresh day.

Through the open window
scent of milk and cud
in the flats—

            little bunch:
            cows and calves
            upwind.

I’ve grown wild
since college and the Sixties:

            hauling hay loads up,
            goosenecks gathered
            with fat calves down
            the mountain—

our dirt road lifeline.