Matthew Hill

Shaniko


Set down here
In a semi-arid landscape
This ghost town where
12 ghosts still reside
The post office still open
2 hours a day


This place named after
Some corrupted version
Of a long dead German pioneer
Him who first passed this way
With intent to set up a gold camp


Viewpoints of the far distant
Cascade peaks in snow
A staged enigmatic frontier
A way station of lost time
A western vantage that is
A portal to evening’s fiery sky


This place was all about the
Wool wheat cattle and gold
Commodities that funded
A place where medicine
Had to arrive by horseback


We as travelers now proceed
Southbound on Highway 97
& must make a 90 degree turn
Towards the western horizon
While driving into a blazing sun


& then into twilight’s hallucinatory sky


Hell, it’s damn near enough
To make you want to buy the place …


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