poetry
Driving in West Texas
The motor hums
as white fluffy clouds grip the edge of the windshield
and pull the car along the asphalt ribboned road…
While long-legged field rows run alongside
only to dive into ragged fields of mesquite
and sticky grass
clutched in cliché rocks.
Singing going to Balmorhea
going to Balmorhea…then
humming beside the ditch of water running past the scary deep pool
and climbing up round and round red rocks thrust through
eons of crust
to a time in recent past when lives were whispered in
West Texas winds.
by Carol Archer
Turkey vultures
No one seems to care
about turkey vultures
or if they do
it’s to say something funny like
somethin’ must be dead
which is pretty funny I guess
in the way horror movies are funny
or at least people always laugh
when someone dies
because they can’t
get away.
But I was going to say
something about turkey vultures
when they soar in groups
and circle themselves
spiraling towards a point
that feels like the center of the sky
where they almost touch each other
in a kind of play
as if to have a laugh or two
before they begin again
in their never ending search
for the dead
and dying.
by Ryan Bayless
20
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2014