Slocan Nocturne

Car headlights pinhole
through the base of the dark.

Black steam where the lake
pours cakes of cloud into the sky.

Dainty toe of mountain
shadows herself onto the scene,

the tearsheet lightning
backdrop ghosts.

This is Valhalla,
and if I am dead,

so be it, let me lie forever
along the snowy spines

of petrified gods.
And if I am alive,

I have seen you face to face,
O Lady Earth,

and I am not afraid.
This is Valhalla,

and if I am alive,
we will enjoy one another.

—from The Charlatans of Paradise,
2005 New Orphic Publishers, Nelson, BC Canada

—Slocan Lake is a lake in the Slocan Country of the West Kootenay region of the Southeastern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.