Keeping Fear Away

At the site the ribbons flutter
They are tell-tales of wind
of men
who have surveyed the valley

I am a jughound planting the geophones
to record the blast vibrations

Sometimes between shots we wait
Are bored like children

We blow up rocks and trees for fun
I toss half a stick of geogell
into the air Shoot it with a shotgun
Rip the morning air apart

We are near a field I watch
Doug blow the ass off a gopher
halfway down its hole
with the cap wire trailing behind

I watch a raven pick up the bread
wrapped around a blasting cap
Fly for a hundred feet
up into his sky And then
the electric touch and black feathers
floating down to the shouts
and yahoos on the ground

I help the powder monkey
shove geogell into the mountain
Make it vibrate under our feet
Sound of the blast comes back
comes back

I wonder at the power of the men
I work for
They will make me rough like their talk
I will laugh with their gestures
that say they are not afraid
of women sex manhood
anybody

:: Peter Christensen, in Going for Coffee (1981)