Mojave Study 1

The vaguely unsettling desert frame of few colors,

terrifying mountains, all hard rocks and sharp angles,

reaching out through the dry air, playing tricks with

distance and depth—up close, easily scaled one moment;

impossibly remote the next.

Here, things flow from one to the next, features changing

slowly—There weren’t yucca trees like this back a few miles,

were there?

Roots reach blindly into arid soil,

seeking what moisture they can, and

now, a swath of green in a low spot, fed by unseen water,

softens the view: familiar shapes of pines and 

deciduous trees, the wind no longer swirling dirt,

but swaying the tall grass like a gentle hand.