catapult magazine

Mount Rainier

by Amanda Caldwell

Tahoma, they call you, the sacred mountain 
that sits like an elder giant’s white-haired head. 
Shouldering aside buildings and clouds 
and slowing the traffic along I-5, 
because no one, even modern 
and white as the snow on your crown, 
can resist a stare and an incantation 
of awe.