Walking the ruts on the Historic Santiam Wagon Trail, I split the stories of sky scraping Douglas firs. Alders and vine maple shed their leafy weight of early Fall.
The brown state attraction sign boasts a sincere Conestoga. A sturdy team in a purposeful westward arch. What benign heroic ambition. Divine inevitability.
Small pox. Wounded Knee. Boarding schools.
I wonder how the sign sits in the eyes of a Kalapooya walking these woods. Or a Nez Perce or Siletz?
Like a ******* in Tel Aviv? A machete in Kigali?
But the Siletz donβt have an air force or UN peace keeping troops.