forgetting my key west cap on the oklahoma panhandle

chalk it up to age

or the red soil in your eyes

or a dark day before a moonless

or full-moon night

sometimes the stars

cover your wounds

'cept for the ones inside

sometimes you just need

to change everything

let the algae blooms

eat themselves out

or let's barge in and choke

the oil platforms

in their embryo

the heat is pushing

the rio grande backwards

up from the gulf through the canyons

of elephant butte

all the way to albuquerque

and then on to colorado

before cooling down a bit

it's never been like this before

native people in alaska

losing their homes and shoreline

to the rising ocean

charting new maps

backtracking moose tracks

reindeer herds lost on a winter night

those americana chords

were dug up about the time

of the maya

before the exceptional

became an ism

when the clay of the human hand

could lead you back home

--- e b bortz