"Alaska's Flag"*

Mad helicopter gunship
a hair's breath above timberline
thundering over tundra
dead flat out ahead,
inside,
a drunken pale faced war dance
of serial wolf hunters, arctic whoops
and weapons, singing:

the gold of the early sourdough dreams
the precious gold of the hills and streams

below,
a mythic creature bounds
across the forget-me-nots
into the hills of deep snow,
the midnight sun illuminates
everything;
no longer territorial governor spends a life-
time separating in her mind
wilderness
from soul,
while down below
the epic chase of lobo the tragedian.
Her tattoo reads
"death from above"

the forty-ninth state.


*Alaska's state song