TD gets an early pop of the splendor yet to come
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., March 20, 2024 — The gold rush is on.
To the east, dear people, to the east.
Hills flowing like past floods filled green spring with nuggets as glorious as sunshine.
Just beyond the hospital, there.
Above the degraded basalt, below that massive tower of water, my dog lurches and jumps over tall grass to send a nose toward the arrowleaf.
And the song begins to sing:
In the town where you were born
Lived a hiker who hiked for glee
And he told us of his life
In the land of yellow ease
So we tramped on to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived in the petals
In our yellow root balsam ease
We all live in a yellow balsam ease
Yellow balsam ease, yellow balsam ease
And our friends are all absorbed
Many more of them live next door
And the leaves begin to play
We all live in a mellow yellow ease
Yellow balsam ease, yellow balsam ease
Yellow balsam ease, yellow balsam ease
As we live a life of ease (a life of ease)
Every one of us (every one of us)
Has all we need (has all we need)
Sky of blue (sky of blue)
And grass of green (sea of green)
In our yellow balsam ease