PANCAKE AT SNOQUALMIE FALLS
PANCAKE AT SNOQUALMIE FALLS
by Michael Wayne Roberts
Moon over my cabin
Sunlight on Mercury
Rosy & Lucia go to the gift shop
passing a pirate missing his hand
He needs a hook & parrot
like they need a cow & a tree
To dish out milk & syrup
& the recipe—
Bringing us back
to a pancake
As magnificent & unique
as the natural world
Ironic yet sincere delight in a vacation. There’s a fakeness to it; while the moon romantically brightens his cabin, it’s the sun that makes the planet Mercury shine (Could they be looking at it through a telescope?); the pirate could be just another tourist (a child?) posing as a pirate with a hand curled up a sleeve; and the “milk & syrup” “Rosy & Lucia” get at “the gift shop” quickly (without going to the source, “a cow & tree”) makes “a pancake” “as magnificent & unique” as the falls they are visiting–all to the vacationer’s taste, just for the enjoyment of being in a splendid “natural” setting.