These poems appear in the Winter 2020 issue of Modern Age. To subscribe now, go here.

Broken Landscape

—Wyoming

Around me, even slopes crack suddenly,
their green in ruptured ski runs; rocky breaks
appear, then heal. So did the plains agree
to rise, or mountains fall apart? It takes
a modern mind to read earth’s history.

Aspen Grove

—Colorado

The others hiked ahead; the grove’s now mine,
its lighting tinseled, cool. The forest floor
is blue with lupine, harebell, columbine.
Green music runs, abstractly; cirrus score
the sky. Do I imagine the design?

White Water

                                                —Along the Arkansas

Rough canyon, rougher waters, forced apart
by shoals and fallen boulders, in a field
of moiling, eddying—the maelstrom heart
of doubt—until, downstream, commotions yield
to pools, serene, the apogee of art.