setting sun shadows
on the pavement
draw a curtain
across colorado
to give us rest from
some unseen audience watching.

it occurred to me then
that the sun itself
has no shadow.
i looked up
to the west.
i swear there was the sound
of the sunset being pulled
along on invisible hooks,
like a curtain
on tracks and rollers.

the things i don't understand
sink into the night
like sands settling
over gomorrah.
until the night is soft,
velvet-like and being drawn
through sunburnt finger
with some force ringing
faintly of the divine.

 

11/2/99
gunbarrel, colorado