Like the banks of the Colorado River eroded by the wind and the water and the whipping rain of the western skies,
All temporal things slip
Away
We hold what we can. Resolute boulders break the flow, Try to arrest the water as it goes Rushing on towards the eternity
Of the sea
Only temporarily are these tangible things owned Bodies clutched close As if we could hold back the wind with our fingers, But as the storm gathers and lifts the sand from the cliffs
Only the memories linger
The sunset falls outside my window And all that was Is left to dwindle to a trickle of a feeling Of a ghost against the redness of the sky.
One must learn to look inwards
Because these outward landscapes of mothers and fathers and sons and daughters
They fly
And these moments are like the shadows of birds Across the waters of the western plains;