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