The universe lurks
in the magic of the hours:
the evening sun slides behind
the ruins of an old stone house
and the cholla thicket, strewn
with the wreckage of windblown leavings—
“Scars,” “Crossing the San Andreas Fault Zone” and “Old Souls Singing in the Chiricahuas”
Traces—faint or bold, visible, or not—left by scalpel, scandal, scurrilous tongues, the scalding steam from a cast-iron kettle, the scolding tones in a mother’s voice, the screams of a child scared straight.
Read more.“Making Silent Stones Speak,” “Cracking the Code” and “When Jeannette MacDonald Reigned in the Kitchen”
Picture Rocks Canyon: Paisley
scarlet bandana caught on gray thornbush
sprouting from naked rock. Lavender-
blooming ironwood, swift
zebra-tailed lizards and always
the cactus wrens for company.