A Fork in the Crypto Road
By Michael Peter Garofalo
We stopped for coffee in Forks WA one day
on the way to Crescent Lake’s forest shade.
The barista smiled, polite, earned a tip.
We sipped and talked about Rips in Time,
splittings, divergences, separations between
Crypto-beings versus real creatures we can find.
Cryptozoology, not bitcom crypto schemes, but
plenty of pseudo-science scuttlebutt.
Yes, Cryptids living on the Quillayute River
or on its incoming Bogachiel or Sol Duc streams.
Or, maybe Chupacabras in La Push.
Forks pretended to host Vampires,
teenage blood suckers on the night prowl,
teenage Werewolves howling, running fast,
Humans afraid of these creatures’ wrath.
Human, not so human, called by the Night,
confused, resisting, teenagers losing the fight
against inner demons and lusty needs
and ordinary life with real human beings.
Books and movies started it all,
now Fork’s stores sell
Vampire and Werewolf dolls.
Motel rooms are decorated in Twilight themes.
Crypto-Reality, fantasies, fictions,
magical scenes.
Drawing thousands of titillated tourists here.
Happy Forkers counting more dollars there.
Its said that
Big Foot roams the nearby lush Hoh woods
seeking a lean Sasquatch Lady with big boobs.
She temporarily hides her alluring charms
from clumsy Big Foot’s fingers and arms,
Carrying a Sasquatch-Yeti baby in her arms.
Why do we often picture and portray
Big Foot as lonely male, a hairy ugly guy,
a grumpy solitary fellow,
without a female, family, friend,
or clan at his side.
And, we have Paul Bunyan, The Logger Man,
a machine of a man, with Babe, his Blue Ox,
dragging logs from the land; plundering
forests till their gone, then moving on.
Nowadays, from Quinault firs
to Humboldt coastal mountain pines,
diesel logging trucks packed full are the rule.
There's a huge statue of Paul the Lumberjack
his axe and ox, in Klamath CA,
at the Trees of Mystery,
along Highway 101 to this very day.
Many beings eat, fight and kill to survive,
wily, tricky, stealthy, with a hunter’s pride.
The Horned God has history on his side.
Hunger keeps us all on the Edge,
ready to amorally pounce from a hedge
and slaughter or harvest creatures just ahead.
We are all Vampires
rising from the dead. Its said,
Living and dying scenes
are sometimes seen in vivid Red.
By Mike Garofalo, January 3, 2025
I read that 2024 was the biggest year on record at Forks WA for tourist business.
A Fork in the Crypto Road, 2025
From: At the Edges of the West: Highway 101
All by Michael Peter Garofalo
Michael Peter Garofalo (1946-) grew up in East Los Angeles, was educated in Catholic Schools, lived with two other brothers, graduated (B.A., M.S.) from local universities, married Blanche Karen Eubanks, served in the US Air Force, worked in and managed many City and Los Angeles County Public Libraries, raised two children, socialized, traveled, and learned. Retired as the Regional Administrator, East Region, Los Angeles County Public Library in 1998. We moved to a rural 5 acre property in Red Bluff, in the North Sacramento Valley, CA. Webmaster since 1999. Worked part-time for the Corning School District (Technology and Media Services Manager); and as a yoga, Taijiquan, and fitness club instructor until 2016. Traveled extensively in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. We both retired, and we moved to Vancouver, WA, in 2017. Currently in 2025: reading, writing, gardening, harmonica playing, string figures playing, home chores, yurt camping, exercise, traveling in the Northwest, walking, web publishing, family events, poetry research, photography, Northwest research, Nature mysticism, sports events, and other projects.
Exhibits at the Cyber Gazebo: Text Art and Concrete Poetry
By Michael P. Garofalo
This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved?, or modified
by Mike Garofalo
on January 5, 2025.