1.
There are bodies that do not want
striated canyon orange
decline lifted hands used to settling
upon long nearby surfaces shrink
momentary blindness the lightest
of touches quiet in avoidance hard
smile ravine shoulders the way
cats betray drunken cavern inclination
to climb sunken eyes half-circles often partly
shuttered bodies observing the space
between dirt and dirt limbs arranged
in positions they would not otherwise
choose the way earth moves arms
circle a generous neck as if such
gesture might fill what is asked
careful in sliding to divine
cower sifting through emotions for one
to safely use water evaporates
the texture of beryllium
2.
The way her hair the way her
neck the arms hang like rope
one could tie an ox with tip
from a ridge shrinking
laughter when she forgets Parowan Ophir
Salina descend as stepwell swimming she
is always going down the gap
of teeth cleft of chin
the way elbows need be tenderized
lavender rub fennel deep
filtered ash to cushion charcoal
sketches mud slipped corners at lips
lines the smoke makes she can replicate
tributary crumble in her hands yield
as silence inhabiting Salt Lake
Aquarius sediment stir aching
floor Loa Orem shorebirds one-eyed
kitten eye roll red
walls how it sneaks to you spilling her arid
in alkali stranded
3.
Maybe the dirty swelling the din
that field tossed sun streaked
her cheeks Paleo Anasazi rusted stinging
hinges an old barn bridle strap rub
of thumbs curled round belt loops Flaming
Gorge a rope tied fat
silver buckle holds nobody corral
collapse her depressions ripped jeans
pocket knotted to thigh tear soft
erode thistle maybe
boots digging mud flats
to knees could kick the living d____
out of hard-walled eggs and brine
flies she deep a dented
shovel furious sow at Castle Gate a hat
pressed long easy frayed braids
waving metallic flame circles air husky
leaning in
4.
Two thousand acres between fourth
and sixth rib rim high
low frequency the Narrows
want farmhouse Abravanel closure
Caldera explosions thicken the color
letting Goshen what can be heard standing
rock and Wasatch Ogden wait
echo musicology tribal myth Saltair
Paiute in prayer to vertebrate architecture what
bones tend to trilobite
interdisciplinary build Arches traverse her
Delicate arteries make of shape her
outcropping in this territory fissures glance
sideways departure periodic and dry so
strata flow rainless shallow
5.
But this isn’t why we‘ve come
ahead some clouds tangled
in Moab Ephraim effacing Zion Bryce
the amount of matter in green &
the blue that made this island
measured the cut of her
rock this sand flat salt bed dedicated
to snow holds flowers
do not live anywhere but Ivins
in dusk cactus eyes cross
roots we do not stray from Fremont
corridors trusted navigate cedar
break skulls of ancient animals bend
lids alluvial soil pieces
of earth collapsed faces and spines
sea rubbed hillways we
sinking look down out of breath
we breathe we
walk on a soft bed skeletons