Saturday, May 10, 2008

Untouchable

This one comes from the Great Road Trip of 2008, simply put one of the best times of my life.

Jagged
Snow crusted rocks forcing
Sharp edges into the sky
Reflecting light like icy daggers
Challenging the clouds for right
To touch the stars
Standing against the surging
Of black, rolling storms
Islands in oceans of air
Immovable in a world where
The ground is solid as shifting sand
Dunes
On the horizen
Curving skyline constantly changing
Snaking lines and sheer edges
Falling off
In watery cascades of sand
Shaped by the wind
Whistling over miles of flat
Scrub bushes
And rushing sheer red canyon walls
Updrafts
Hawks and eagles
Flung upwards to hover
Unmindful of the world so many
Thousands of feet below
Fiercely watchful golden eyes
Raptor intelligence
Tilting a wing to veer suddenly
Impossibly
Curvingly away over the land
Snow and sand and water passing
Rapidly underneath
Following the contours of wilderness so
Untouchable
Hidden valleys known only
To herds of elk
Wary
But secure in their isolation
Sequestered in miles of pine and lakes
Deep and cold
Reflecting a perfect sky
Their world
Unforgiving and gentle still
Ebb and flow
In perfect balance