Breaking Trail At Roxborough State Park, Colorado
By Iris Jamahl Dunkle
There are days when life juts out red and raw
as sandstone. Think: glaciers did it. Think: those
red teeth aren’t trying to stain your heart. Here,
the wild reeks of sage and pink blooms. It hums
in the voices of crickets and bird song.
Unseen snakes spell away in the tall grass.
But, still you walk forward toward whatever
vista you came to see. The meadow where
pioneer cabins and their stories fall
in on themselves. Try to not get buried.
Even deer run, longing for home.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle is the current Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, CA. Her latest book is There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air (2015). Her debut collection, Gold Passage, was selected by Ross Gay to win the 2012 Trio Award. Her latest collection, Interrupted Geographies, will be published by Trio House Press later this year. Dunkle teaches at Napa Valley College and is on the staff of the Napa Valley Writers' Conference.
Featured photo by Thomas Shahan / CC
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