September 2023
Bio Note: Getting around to see the differing landscapes of Arizona has long been both informative and pleasurable for me. The part of the state where the Navajo live brings history and land into a dramatic focus and hearing about the past from a Navajo guide at Canyon de Chelly certainly overpowered the impressions given by the old Kit Carson comics I read in my childhood.
David Chorlton
When the mesas fade like blue fire into sky
and the earthbound trails
grow restless
there will be red dust masquerading
as time on the run
and soldiers, soldiers, soldiers
where the rain should be
with a mandate from the thunder
to rearrange the order
of the universe. They’ll empty the suns
from their pockets, pour wind
into the canyon, drink
streams and complain
that they aren’t rivers,
pray for themselves and their families
when only the moon can hear them
and then pray for the moon
that it never reveals
what they have done.
©2023 David Chorlton