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Gammel Oppland and the Good Life

When the snow falls
as it is doing now
Not ferociously
but keeping us in, nevertheless

Perhaps a foot or a foot-and-a-half

After we have warmed up
the pot of yesterday's soup
and tended to the laundry

After Mari has organized
year-end-notes and news
and the cats have purred
themselves to sleep

It is time to take a glass
of Gammel Aquivit

A gift from a friend in Norway

And praise what a potato can do
to make a good life grand

Skål!

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