7 eagles on a kelp-plastered

rock offshore withering

clouds recede across

the mirrored inlet

calm tide and the sun's

glint through salty

humid vapour

----

subsidized ferry

nearly empty and last

night's shoddy hamburger 

in belly still as

the floating dock

no big swells on the

Hecate overnight 

slept on hard carpet,

pretty haida girl two

rows up.

----

bunched against shoreline

seaweed to bramble almost

instantaneously snaking

road to the village

named for an archipelago

named for a periodically

insane king's wife who

had 15 children

a long ways from here

a long time ago

----

no one stirring yet

in skidegate

except a visitor 

and an eagle

looking at him from

the bill reid pole

spruce and cedar forest climbs

behind the village

the cemetery warns away

passersby trucks and vans

in driveways 

and children's

toys. there's a story

on the pole but

no one stirring yet.

-upon arrival at skidegate. four vignettes. 2010