CHETCO RIVER POEM

for Ty

we kinda sorta went to the
chetco river cos it’s all about
the effort and not
the outcome we
drove up the
southbank with
nothing but signs that
said Don’t Hunt Don’t
Dare You Stop Here – we
braked by a man with a
face like putty that dangled
at an angle a half-chewed
cigar not a yard, just a ranch, he said I
called a steer a cow and thought
gosh durn, he’ll think that
I’m stupid.

-Ryn Gargulinski, Aug. 2006