Tim Rundquist: How We Came Together

I think his name was Larson.
He had come to meet me, because
I lived in the Midwest now,  teaching,
and he knew Gus had a son in Iowa.

When Gus and Jennie celebrated 50 years together,
I wrote, "Where the Wind Blows West,"
and in it I recalled what he had said:

"Oh ja, he said, we came together

Oh the boat.  I don't remember.
I think Gus stopped in Sandstone
But I went direct to Duluth.
Du-lute, he said:  Du-lute.  We did
Everything, mostly construction.  I don't
Know.  Gus went to the west coast,
To smell the sea again, I guess."

He caused me to realize that my father,

in his migration from Norway, through Chicago,

had come up somewhere near on his way

through Sandstone, to Du-lute, and on

to Tacoma, where I had been born.

Mari and I drove up to Duluth,

stopping in Sandstone, looking for tracks.

One day Jane Rundquist said that her son, Tim,

was going to edit The Otter Tail Review, 

and that I should send him something.  

The Otter Tail Review was, like the name itself,

something Minnesotan, and I remembered

Sandstone, and Duluth, once away.

For several years, I sent Tim something,

and went to Fergus Falls to read them,

remembering that once, Dad had come this way,

going to the West Coast, to smell the sea again.

And now Tim, younger than my own son,

is gone, too.  We had become Minnesotans, ourselves,

for a time, as Dad did.  As Tim did.

His tracks are in Minnesota, too; in the Otter Tail Review,

in how we came together.