Another July poem of the month

Taos Pueblo

(New Mexico pueblo-abandoned-tourists $10.00 per entry per person)

As old women shiver on the open plain

with buckets of water and wood

for kivas to send pinion-wood smoke

blowing through sage and high desert mesa,

you can press your ear

against a low moon

settling on the snowy foothills of Sangre de Cristo;

and hear dangling corn twirling

in the wind, whistling

through horse and cow skulls,

mud and straw

and over the cemetery’s white crosses

past a few old men straddling

a fence smoking tobacco

and waiting for winter.

Even though it is now

perfectly dark

you can feel their slouched shoulders

take on the mountain’s imperfections

and sense how the darkness

once filled everything

with the weight of wild horses.

Steven Pelcman

River Oak Review USA (Taos Pueblo-winter 2010)