A Drive From Fairbanks

Moon lurking behind the clouds Wind making the snow slither over the road The car bouncing, tumbling The wind pulling, yanking The sun leaving us for the darkness to claim The mountains loom up so high on their prestigious thrones Looking down upon us At their feet The dark lines of trees poking Jagged out of the ground like skeletal fingers Occasional yellow eyes pass And turn to red behind us The moon shows its face Half covered A red ring around it Prowling behind the mountains The mountains a never ending maze Twisting, turning The road snaking through aimlessly An ambling pavement to the end A ghost town Of summer tourist lodges all dark Empty, desolate, sightless windows Wink as we leave A frozen river And Denali sieged by dark, roiling clouds Trees making dark streaks upon the mountains mighty face Ridges in the mountains like giant sled tracks A bridge looms out of the darkness Surrounded by blowing snow The shhhh and howling of the wind all around us The car lurching as the wind tried to snatch us up The snow churning, twisting, shapeless Yet dancing, swirling, and mysterious Being blown off the mountain tops Creating an indistinct smudge in the sky One lonely star shining As the wind gives up A brief respite Then it starts all over again