Between here and her are rolling hills where
wind-weathered peoples once cornered game.
They walked and hunted and walked and lived.

You can save money crossing those hills if you have a K-Tag on your windshield.

Then great flats we only desire to know
as vectors of acceleration over time, sit upon
the largest unbroken tectonic plate in the world.

“This was once under a vast inland sea,” she said. “More than once.” he replied.

Between here and her is a massive orogenic phantasm.
Buried to its shoulder in its own eroded silt, still it looms.
Cloaked in a shroud of green, it is the preferred home
of the larger, more secretive mammals.

“A full-grown grizzly can stand as tall as a…”

Then desert, where they built a city to accelerate
the process of gaining and losing riches.
Beyond the light and noise of it, slow, ancient processes unfold.
The birth and death of that city will be an unnoticed flicker in time.

“If you have seventeen showing, it’s usually best to stick.”

Between here and her is
everything seen and everything hidden,
everything learned and forgotten,
everything created and destroyed
and it’s all just so damned beautiful and mysterious.

My arms would gauge the weight of her mysteries too,

If I could get from here to her.

—dj. 2020-12-03