High and Dry

 

Stark

Bone white sand

Bones in the sand

Teeth and shells in the arroyo wall

Purple clay

And melting hillsides

Blazing aqua

Cluster cloud

Transparent sky

Constellations bleached by daylight

Crisp cut horizon

The jagged edges of mesa

And black rock in the distance

Melted earth core

Lava from the sky

Gnarled tree fingers

Dead branches and dead roots are the same

Berries on the tree

Berries in the coyote scat

Berry colored clay

Sheep’s milk sand and cloud and cliff

Holes where black wasps dig volcano patterns

Age-old ocean floor

Cow trail cut across

Round rust rocks

Hollow rocks

Iron rocks

Lichen to burn for smoke effect

Lichen to soak for dye

Lichen to look at

Lichen to touch

Some soft

Some hard and dry

Some dead and black the color of lava

Ripple marks where water moved

Living dirt crust

Sign of rain-rush gorging deeper canyons

Where layers upon layers of years reveal

A yellow boulder sitting in purple clay rolled down from above sediment

Barbwire fence fallen

Coils of fence half submerged in ground

To’hajiliee border

Invisible lines

Owned land

Place near water