CANYON TOWER

I have a fondness for a certain tower,
Free-standing off the Tonto rim, eons
Since a rockfall left a space between
Itself and the layered plateau. For only an hour

A day the sun betrays the separateness.
Grotesquely mushroom-shaped, gigantic head
And torso, spindly legged, brown and red
The color scheme; in near eternal rest,

Weather-aware it blandly notes the wrens,
The deer, the squirrels, scorpions, lizards, ravens–
And blindly surveys the emerald-chocolate river’s
Mighty churning, the silver bridge’s distance,

The mule parades, the yellow rafts, and me,
Who also deal with instability.

(86, Canyon, Feb. 23, 1993)

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