August 18, 2024

(On the way to the “North Park” of)
Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge

Miles beyond the
"Open Range" sign,
and after navigating
the narrow red rock clefts
run-through by stony creeks
barely wide enough
for a single fly fisherman;
and after ascending into 
those higher thoughts 
of the alpine, the gray crags
of a national park just visible 
before the seven percent descent --
the land suddenly quiets and browns, 
rumpled and rolling as if wind
and the effort to exist
had worn all the edges off
and scattered its people.
Encircled by a saws' edge
of distant mountains,
the land drops again into
unexpected flatness and green, 
threaded by a meager 
meandering river --
And desolation wears
a new, wind-whipped name: 
riparian.