Northern Arizona
through desert of dreams
Kingman from Needles
and beyond.
We haggled for a bed,
ate tacos for breakfast
and set out for
the south rim.
We set out for
a trip back in
time.

In Oatman
the road skirted the cliffs,
climbed the narrow pass.
Rusted barbed wire
marked our progress
and the empty mines
yawned of John Carter & Johnny Moss.
Singing songs of Carole Lombard,
we were haunted by the ghost of
Billy Ray Flour.
Oatman,
then as now,
the living Ghost town.

We’d already
witnessed the ghosts of
Cisco.
The prairie dogs of
Cisco
filled Rte. 128
North of Moab
before we found
Goblin Valley and
the fabled
canyons of Cassidy.

We followed the barbed wire
to the Sno-Cap
before turning north at Williams,
home of Old Bill and the Roadrunner.

At our campsite
we watched the elk.
The ravens ate the gifts
like so much sugary cereal,
and we cast our gaze
at the past…
and the past cast its gaze back
at us.
Rock layers:
The Coconino Sandstone,
the Hermit Formation,
the Redwall Limestone.
The Paleozoic parapets piercing to
white water.
We threw
stones and our voices
echoed through the chasm.

“Ai Chihuahua,”
the river sounded back.