Thirty-five years ago today, Mt St Helens erupted. The build-up to the eruption was intense; for weeks, the local news monitored the volcano’s status, and talked about what might happen when it finally blew. Of course, it didn’t live up to the hype—at least, not in Seattle…

Somewhere around here
I have a small jar of ash
from the volcano

I didn’t collect it myself
it came from somebody else

After all the warnings we were given
about what might happen
all we got was a fine layer of dust
on our cars—
hardly worth noticing
except for the extra trip
through the car wash

(18 May 2015)