Marufo Vega

Cresting spiny ridge of Mexican limestone in full moon light
giant prickly pear silhouette,
pads flailing crazed and beautiful like a flaming god that
knows no weakness or pity.
A three tiered sphinx
with the Rio Grande ever polishing its shoes.
Short cliff, medium, long, to the green water,
cascade of darkness, towering pit of the earth.
Chihuahuan Desert stops hiding,
delicate as a cactus flower sticky with pollen.

How can the day shine so sure,
but the night be bright with its falsehood?

I am a wizard who knows no spells.
I want to move like an ocotillo in the wind,
Swaying barbed and dead until rain comes,
then springing leaves and blooms of buried life. Full Post»

Leadville

I liked the town
Except for the woman
Who looked older than she was
With her plastic cup of beer on main street after dark
A visage like the nearby sage flats

She laughed too much
talked too much
Because I was busy
Making a photograph she thought was funny

Actually
I didn’t mind her yet
She told me of a murder in the building across the street
How the richest woman in the world
Once froze to death nearby

But when she started talking conspiracies
She’d heard on the radio and thought were true
I wondered why neat towns have so many idiots

I should become a dictator
Then people would act a certain way

I gritted my teeth so I could bear her ugly face
And said I had to go. Full Post»