Sunday, May 25, 2008

Theodore Roosevelt National Park: Mental Image #1

Whipping winds fan incessant heat
naked Dakota sun is ultra-radiant and unrelenting
a bit like being in a convection oven,
but the harsh and uncompromising badlands
form a glorious geological anomaly
an homage to the inevitability of time.

The earth is carved with parched watercourses
that snake down from hilltop to valley
towering buttes bring stark relief to the plateau,
from a distance they look so permanent
but they crumble at the lightest touch
only conscientious conservation has kept them pristine.

Dotting the uplands are herds of brooding bison
blind to the beauty that surrounds them
wishing only for the night to bring cool rain,
in a small wooded vale that appears magically
over a desolate climb of rocky soil
an antelope bounds gracefully through the trees.

Red-tailed Hawk circles watchfully overhead
taking the measure of a chattering town of prairie dogs
who noisily defend the entrances to their tunnel mazes,
a proud stallion takes a prominent place atop a ridge
his magnificent mane flows behind him in a breeze
he acts with absolute freedom and fearlessness in his domain.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I like how you bounce back and forth from land to beast.