Blackbrush

Blackbrush�" -- Coleogyne ramosissima

the dominant understory shrub

in the pinyon-juniper canyons.

Mountain-mahogany�" -- Cercocarpus montanus and ledifolia.

Single-leaf ash�" -- Fraxinus anomalus

and possibly a western hophornbeam

by the small birch-like leaves

and the shredding bark

in a moist stretch of joint trail.

The joint-fir, green ephedra

looks like an ocean plant.

Could the wind or white water rivers alone

have shaped these sandstone, red rock forms?

Network of canyons, inverse of mountains.

It had to be ocean

ebbing and flowing, emotionally, like wind,

moving atmosphere, thicker

shaving, scraping, polishing, gouging, digging

fish canyons

then, shallower, dinosaur swamps

now, dry, rock gardens.

Explain the human history with water:

did the Anasazi visit neighbors

along the canyon rims and deep within,

combination caves and red-rock houses

small windows, doorways, just crawlways,

with corn gifts on summer evenings

when the canyon bottoms held permanent, not intermittent,

streams? After them

came the Ute and Navajo, Spanish and English.

Ravens dine on road kill.

A few long red roads connect some canyons.

The unprotected flats are overgrazed, rabbitbrush.

It is interesting

that as I learn the woody and herbaceous plants,

walk the desert foothills, I too could stay.