Notes From the Road

So Much of Earth Is Stone

Most of the trip has been in the nineties

or above, inside the car  the AC is cool

while the earth outside cakes and bakes

in waves

all through western Colorado

the stone walls bear the weight of geographic wisdom , and

all through  Utah with its elephantine mounds of molten dust

so much of the earth is stone,

miles and miles

of  stone, crusted slate that speaks

of time outside of human drama,
outside of familiar archetypes:
life and death,
love and mating
are just wheels of dawn.
There is no easy response
to the silent gears
of this planet:
we are tourists
in a land of structure
far beyond  a common alphabet.