A Mellethin Sunrise

Mount Mellenthin (pronounced Melenteen) rises to 12,645 feet in the La Sal Range of Utah. An earlier version of this poem appeared in High Country News. Photo by Richard F. Fleck
I crawl out of my sleeping bag
at Geyser Pass high in the La Sals
just before sunrise to walk out into
the meadow and look across at
Mellenthin Mountain, dark and gray,
but with a tinge of light near its
summit, and as the sun rises,
the mountain’s north face turns
into a fancy’s show box with
the slightest color of pink
taking over from the summit
downwards, but as the pink
spreads lower, a reddish tinge
diffuses across the granite slopes,
and a golden glow envelopes all
until the mountain becomes its
dark-gray self with just a touch
of dancing wispy crests of snow.