22 - Globemallow

GlobemallowYear after year after yearSmooth rocks smoothenedBy water and even sand in wind and even windJuniper scrub grew to a tree                split and diedRemains as snag             mostly still aliveRodent holes take refuge in sandy soilBeneath the globe mallow crop waiting for the seven year piñon to dropSeeds. Many young evenOaks in little gullies of green grass meadows hidden pond and aspen stands big Mesatops catch the rain as ifSome rock giant has been slowly gardeningThese clefts for a billion yearsBut groves of bright orange mallow and yellow and blue penstemonAgainst the rain fingers touching the horizon, blurring the distanceAnd us journeying along an imperfectFamily group forged and beaten still smoking from the birthWithout a place to call home together so we wander, create traditions and stories, move onward to places never heard ofA group of young souls just born into the still smoking mud of which we feel the heat of what we were also molded fromAnd a rag of trash wound up in an ancient sagebrush bush that I take three stems from and show them to Todd for a sniff, stuff myMouth full of globemallow flowers and gain sustenance from the land and I’ll tell you I’ve given up on meaning and instead work with how I find feelings out in places both empty and full suchMoments of presence to convey a kind of resonance that doesn’t need these words for you to come close to itBut it’s like a fire stoked by attention only and itGoes out and everything is dark in that realm that you don’t know or see into become likeThe old ones who rest in the hills gardening their patch near the piñons and living with theLeast chipmunks and the mule deer and the visitor who comes for cota from the house overPuts his feet up by the door and stares out at the rain fingers and the mallows and the piñons and junipers and rodents and distant cities and collapse and reforming and smallnesses and bignesses and the Colorado river and the lack of water in the lakes and he sits with his friend staring out and and says only for hours: after all these years…..PS. Thanks for reading. Funds are tight right now so if you feel like it, throw a few dollars my way. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.walkaround.run