WEBVTT

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This is a work of mine.

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It's called "Fire in the Hole."

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Fire in the hole is
what you're supposed

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to shout three times before
you set up the dynamite charge.

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I don't know if they
do that on roads,

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but they sure do it on trails.

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They send one man up at
each end of the trail,

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up each direction in
the track or wherever

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they're going to blast and
shout out fire in the hole.

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I was working for
the Parks Service

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on a trail crew in the northern
Yosemite region in 1955.

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"Squatting a day in the sun,
one hand turning the steeldrill.

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One, swinging the four pound
singlejack hammer down.

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Three inches an hour, granite
bullhump boulder square

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on the trail.

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Above, the cliffs, of
Piute Mountain waiver.

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Sweat trickles down my back.

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Why does this day keep coming
into mind, a job in the rock

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hills, aching arms,
the muletracks,

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arching blinding sky, noon
sleep under snake-scaled juniper

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limbs.

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That the mind entered
the tip of steel,

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the arm fell like the breath.

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The valley, reeling, on
the pivot of that drill.

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12 inches deep we packed
the charge dynamite on mules

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like frankincense.

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Fire in the hole!

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Fire in the hole!

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Fire in the hole!

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Jammed the plunger down through
dust and sprinkling stone.

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Strolled back to see arms and
hands and shoulders free."

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