Thoughts

Acrylic on canvas, 10" x 11.5"

Aditi Sawant lives in Plano, Texas. this piece first appeared inVoicesin 2023.

On the Road in the San Luis Valley

Hannah Behrens

Through the car window,
I watch the high mountains roll into the desert.
The Rio Grande is somewhere to my right, 
down past the sagebrush.

I notice that the granite has turned to flagstone;
pink irony granules
melted down by the wind,
giving Colorado its name.

Long dusty driveways lead to 
little ranch houses with deadwood fenceposts.
Even dead things remain alive by being useful,
wired together by someone’s working hands.
In this part of the world,
nothing is ever wasted,
everything has a purpose.

Through the car window,
long sweeping views
pass like the wind, far over the unspoiled horizon,
uninterrupted.
In this valley, there is a small notion
of human beings living with it, not against it.
  

		

Author's Bio

Hannah Behrens is a poet, freelance writer, and writing coach. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado. She is a native of Boulder, Colorado, and has lived in the Netherlands since 2016. She is the co-leader of Poetry Critique Group Amsterdam.