Sierra Nevada Koan
Dark streaks in the granite -
Are they restitution
For wounds gouged in the rock
By Central Pacific, or rather,
By Chinese workers
Who died
That the rails might be one,
To span a continent
On which they'd just arrived?
Was it the speckled peaks
Or the people
Who peeled open their skin
To get at the sweet juice
Of bliss, to taste the spicy meat
Of euphoria
And make love to life?
-Richard Hacken