Saturday, November 7, 2020

THE FACTS AT DOG TANK SPRING ~

 





The Facts At Dog Tank Spring



Three broke-down gnarled cottonwoods at Dog Tank Spring

they're older than anything at Dog Tank Spring

The cloudy iced water the high desert

two or three inches fresh rabbit track snow

Blaze orange and cobalt tents at Dog Tank Spring

The crackling juniper fire at Dog Tank Spring

The night stars wheeling close and mythically overhead

you could reach up & touch the sharp edges of

constellations at Dog Tank Spring

Half human petroglyphs haunt the dream at Dog Tank Spring

but who talks about Aeschylus at Dog Tank?

Orange sparks sift into the night

a coyote cries off in the sage at Dog Tank

Wonder where the dead go at Dog Tank Spring

Dog Tank Spring turkey buzzards go where?

Dog Tank hiking comrades shout over wine at the night sky

At Dog Tank Spring your cell phone won't work

the news went stale a thousand years past

night drops to 12 degrees

the water jug freezes at Dog Tank Spring

Plans hopes aspirations irresistable ideas at Dog Tank Spring

but human designs at daybreak seem the raving of idiots

dawn is for coffee at Dog Tank Spring

At Dog Tank Spring the bow saw the axe the work gloves the matches

the Cedar Mesa map at Dog Tank Spring

spires hoodoos pinnacles of polished red sandstone

cream colored stone shelves at Dog Tank Spring

The trail guide says anticline & unwrap at Dog Tank Spring

Greasewood rattlesnakes blue wavering laccoliths

the tiny oil painting tacked to a pinyon

by someone last month at Dog Tank Spring

A hundred years are what at Dog Tank Spring

Dog Tank past and future lead nowhere

What are spilloffs chockstones scorpions the dugway the sidereal

what's a rowel at Dog Tank Spring?

The faraway ranch-house the constellations the rabbitbrush

the anvil-headed clouds over Navajo

Let's talk about the old ones at Dog Tank Spring

Tobacco Canyon Bullet Canyon Kane Gulch the turkey pen ruins

want to meet here in late March?

Embers whiten and fade they're fleeting books or old loves

a wool blanket over the cold sleeping bag.

These things are facts

at Dog Tank Spring.


                                             18-20 December 2019

                                              for Mike Gordon




________________________________

Andrew Schelling

The Facts at Dog Tank Spring

Dos Madres, 2020