CROSSING RED CANYONS

No clear way shows
across the red canyons,
arrayed like a net
of veins or spilled
like the guts of a deer.

I thought one boot step
at a time would get us
across. Close together,
we would follow along
the grain of the land.

But looking forward
and backward we tumble
deeper and deeper down
rusty slopes to the
edges of cliffs.

Across the chasm,
you on one side, I
on the other, we cannot
coordinate our leaps, turn
instead to wander lost
away from each other.



© 2005 by Richard W. Todd

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