From a window seat approaching Denver


The contours of the surface are formed by the water
but once formed the contours direct where the water will flow.

—Edward De Bono, Lateral Thinking

At the bottom of the sky
irrigation systems, roads,
and fencelines divide the plains
with simple squares. And circles,
hundreds of one-handed clocks
stopped by winter till they turn
to feed the dry fields again.

Colorado Mondrians.

Crop stubble dusted with snow and
gray tree growth color the contours
where water once flowed free
beneath the grid of roads and clocks.

There’s nothing straight in nature,
so they say.

Guilford, 2008

Weblished: 20 March 2008, 22:58

Typeset this poem    Related: art rural