Chaco
Voices carry
over time as well as distance.
I can hear them when I stand
on this remembered earth
dreaming back
the histories sustained within
its blistered shivering expanse.
Bone-seeking winds bear
timeless confessions of
this struggle that began with fire.
Litanies of toil and hunger,
celebration and fear,
sing through my ears
muted only by the dust of walls
that crumble secretly around me.
Songs like night birds come
whistling down the ink black cliffs
that blot out the stars
who teach.
I’m learning how not to be haunted
by these ancestral cries
and animal whispers
but dark winter canyons will
always make me tremble.
My startled blood thunders
as the voices gather
my bones
shaking hands with the wind.
From the book, "The Logic of Broken Country". ISBN: 0-945884-15-X.
Longhand Press ©1998.
Voices carry
over time as well as distance.
I can hear them when I stand
on this remembered earth
dreaming back
the histories sustained within
its blistered shivering expanse.
Bone-seeking winds bear
timeless confessions of
this struggle that began with fire.
Litanies of toil and hunger,
celebration and fear,
sing through my ears
muted only by the dust of walls
that crumble secretly around me.
Songs like night birds come
whistling down the ink black cliffs
that blot out the stars
who teach.
I’m learning how not to be haunted
by these ancestral cries
and animal whispers
but dark winter canyons will
always make me tremble.
My startled blood thunders
as the voices gather
my bones
shaking hands with the wind.
From the book, "The Logic of Broken Country". ISBN: 0-945884-15-X.
Longhand Press ©1998.
