Where is the Awe

in ,

I close my eyes

A long inhale

New Mexico, I must be 10

Running along the edge of Echo Canyon Road

One foot hitting tarmac, the other hitting sand

My best friend beside me

We’ll be friends forever, we say

Show the adults what loyalty means

What everlasting looks like

And we’ll be superheroes one day

Crayon colors streak the sky as sunlight fades

The horizon soon just an ember glow

Ladybugs hover in the crisp air,

Their shells a rainbow spectrum of color

A family of quail wanders near an adobe house

Cacti and sage guard the suburban lawns

Tumbleweeds race down the road ahead

Spindly dead things pushed by ghosts

Let’s build a fort and live there, deep in the desert

Where the teachers and dull ones can’t find us

Live off the land

Eat tarantulas and scorpions

Catch them with bows and arrows

Gather water from the Rio Grande

Hope and prey magic is real

The Lost Boys in Neverland

Fend off civilized reality

It would strangle us with its tentacles

A siren outside wakes me

Present day, everlasting long-ended

I haven’t seen you in 25 years

A feeling of longing for White Sands Missile Range

Where the desert becomes the Alps

Our sleighs ready at slope’s peak, standing side-by-side

Hoping to race down one more time

One more chance before sunset

But we never will again