poetry writing challenge - day 5

write a poem about a landmark of some kind


Death Valley

A thousand years from most starting points,
A thousand turns from anywhere anyone was meant to be,
Another many, countless stops for water, directions, rebirths of small
and various kinds

Then someone might see it.
I never will.

Just my name, my nickname,
Two letters twice – (okay for my two lives)
in rocks, little rocks, just right.
Nowhere. Nothing too much

That I didn’t spell it makes it all the more personal
As if some flesh of my heart is exposed

To the rising, high and burning sun
The silky, chilling, moving moon

To the steady, climbing, thoughtless sun
To the milky, thinning, wanting moon

Arriving light and bitter day
Expanding dark and calming cool

Again and again
Under this portrait
The smallest of shadows
moving
from east to west
again

A jackrabbit might kick my name apart.
And when that happens, even if I’m already dead,
I will be
More and more
Nowhere.

A little less
here.

A little less
loved.