Through Rose-Coloured Goggles
Above the winter-worn lodgepole pines
Whose indigo shadows dapple the bright whiteness,
We soar in the lift
Toward the heavens so
Drenched, their blueness might drip.
Numb toes, frost-nipped fingertips,
Wind whooshing in our ears, whir
Of pulleys, the give of crisp snow under skis.
I gaze upward through rose-coloured goggles
Toward splayed red rays.
Through clouded eyes I glimpse the haze below me,
Tucked pink and soft among folded grey peaks.
Then I see the dark jut of jagged rock,
Straining, scraping against the saturation
Of the cerulean sky.
~ Jeananne Kathol Kirwin
Jeananne Kathol Kirwin is the author of the award-winning Greetings from Cool Breezes (Borealis Press, 2005). Her piece “Sundowners in the Cockpit” appears in the women’s travel anthology Outside of Ordinary (Second Story Press, 2005), and her other travel writing has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards. She lives in Edmonton with her husband and four children.
Nice imagery. Made me think about that perfect day on a quiet day at a ski hill, hearing the hum of the lift, the crush of snow under ski, and the frost brushing exposed cheeks.
Jeananne A poet and an author!!! Enjoyed yur poem very much! peg
“their blueness might drip”, I shiver. Lovely imagery. For a non-down hill skier, your poem is almost seductive. Would they allow me to only ride up and down and up and down and up and down?
“Numb toes, frost-nipped fingertips,
Wind whooshing in our ears, whir
Of pulleys” — very powerful imagery, Jeananne. I feel it as surely as if I were sitting next to you.