Lookouts Gone Down

Born of smoke and fire glow In those blazing summers of long ago Little mountaintop pagodas Wooden cabs with cute cupolas Guardians of the grand Sequoia Douglas fir and ponderosa Where vigil kept with eagle eyes Spotted smokes of wildland fires Called the word to those below When lightning arced in brilliant bolts Around the face of Roman Nose Raven Roost and Sugarloaf And oh those names played magic games Roamed my mind and called my name Called me up to Sleeping Beauty Pyramid, Sun Top and Tyee Wounded Doe and Bumblebee Curly Bear and Chickadee But a silence slow descending Told me of an era ending And I wander in despair Searching ridges wind-swept bare Little houses once sat there They all have vanished into the air Tell me, where is Bonnet Top Three Brothers and Three Corner Rock I can find no sign or trace Of Porcupine or Dirty Face Bunker Hill lies in disgrace Just memories to mark their place Now the wind blows eerily Through the ghosts of their debris Through charcoal rails and melted glass Rusted nails and powder ash No Sourdough or Stampede Pass Timberwolf or Looking Glass I'll take the trail to Termination Tramp the dust of Desolation Dollar Watch and Devils Dome Noble lookouts long gone down They were up when I was young Sunrise, Clear West and Setting Sun