Detour at Four Mile Creek  by Miranda Parkes

Stopped, barefoot on a desert plain
scanning the horizon,
               ninety in the shade
Black blobs hover,
distorting scale of feral dark dogs.
Entropic pulses trace furrows in the ground,
dusty veils slide over craters
cutting paths deep into the lore
of pilgrim keepers.
Above a blue eternity
drawn down by alternating waves,
                 hot insects drone their curse
Sunken breath warn off the nameless dread,
silent unconcern trace serpentine
black rivers lifted from the bedrock vault.
Held between caverns of dirt/rock
threatening to crush
five foot eight into shadows.
Wrapped in secret spell,
reduced, already changed,
never to descend into
that burning red river again,
a rusty mark in the shape of sun's mantle
fracture the background of lunar lands.

Miranda Parkes 1995