driving west
past the petrified forest
thoughts speed north
*
scent of cliff rose
here in the desert
my prickles soften
*
Kaibab Trail switchbacks
with each step the minute hands
fall off the clock
*
this enormous life
somehow I make it fit
into a chair
*
patch of blue
a tease before the hardest rains—
hope makes a crummy raincoat
*
an ant never
walks backward—
learning to love like that
*
what river even now
erodes all these grand layers—
woman standing beside the canyon
*
night of rain
morning of more rain
even my dreams get wet
*
journey of 800 miles
just one more stitch
in eternity