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
