By Ed Lambert, Salida, CO
Buried in waist-deep snow,
this century-old, mostly abandoned roadway
is a pleasant cross-country ski among healthy pines
to airy 11,375 feet windblown, old Monarch Pass summit.
Meandering north and south from here,
this twisting ridge of cold granite,
a massive, magnificent swelling of earth,
divides the North American continent,
like God parting, for His chosen, the Red Sea,
splits the pristine, frigid plentiful waters born here,
that then flow great distances east or west,
eventually stirring into salt-water bosom of Atlantic or Pacific.