Full Moon Poets at 101 Artists' Colony

SEDONA SPIRT WOMAN

Ilanicana listens,

Cinder shaded eyes shift, piercing the dust.

Weathered vest; a shroud for parched skin.

Folds of coarse fabric coil around

                             her ankles exposing callused feet.

In silence she watches.

Gargantuan buttes silhouetted,

mimic cathedrals, lizards and bell towers.

Bear caves lie camouflaged

                                    above prehistoric water lines.

Coyote tracks reveal past encounters.

In silence she listens; watches.

Her home; layered rock.

Her earthen cellar; winter stocked.

Strips of beef, chicken and snake

                                    comprise her store.

Thunderheads gather over her sacred land.

Waters avalanche like the pipeline she remembers.

The arroyo compels her attention

                                   as it overflows its boundaries.

And, she stands waiting….. again.