"and yet...incomprehensibly to me...
you loved this land,
loved its emptiness
its hugeness
its open fatness
the exciting biting cold
the white snow in the sun that hurt your eyes
the forthright way the air attached to your cheekbones chins and fingers.
the merciless summer sun that made the train-tracks flash
and the air above the wheat fields shimmer purple
storm-clouds piled on the horizon trying to look like mountains."
-plainsong by nancy huston-
alberta/saskatchewan/manitoba spring 08