11-24-2023, 09:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-25-2023, 06:28 AM by TranquillityBase.)
The Donner Party Mix
Both the captive and the captor
are a little bit mad
sun and desert bite in that much harder
more likely to run into a rattlesnake
than a smile among the limestone and juniper
four months they’d fought that desert
left behind old Verecker to die alone
racing for the mountains, to beat the snows
that finally trapped them at the pass
a prison of snow and slow starvation
living underground, eating boiled leather
torn from the roofs, unending cold
81 started the trip, 45 came out the next spring
32 were children
their advice: “don’t take no cut-offs,
and hurry along as fast as you can.”
Both the captive and the captor
are a little bit mad
sun and desert bite in that much harder
more likely to run into a rattlesnake
than a smile among the limestone and juniper
four months they’d fought that desert
left behind old Verecker to die alone
racing for the mountains, to beat the snows
that finally trapped them at the pass
a prison of snow and slow starvation
living underground, eating boiled leather
torn from the roofs, unending cold
81 started the trip, 45 came out the next spring
32 were children
their advice: “don’t take no cut-offs,
and hurry along as fast as you can.”