Shards of Memory

HIKING BROWN'S RANCH TRAIL LATE NOVEMBER

Leaving my small town on a small plane

in the middle of the night, I'm reminded

what Emily Dickinson said about the mind,

how it needs what it can't know--

more than it needs any Aha! Take me there!

I tell the bus driver. Take me where news

I can't remember can't run intersections,

where everything from now is old. Older,

he asks, than Brown's Ranch settled

by E. O. Brown, a Scottsdale entrepreneur,

early part of last century? He ran thousands

head of cattle on 44000 acres. Before that?

Before that they were unwanted newcomers

to Yavapai and Apache. They came early 1600s,

hunting, occasionally raiding Pima settlements.

Desert farming Hohokam settled in valleys,

about 1300s. Before them, agriculture

became important about 1000 Common Era.

Earliest evidence places nomadic bands

on Brown's Ranch 9000 years ago.

Yavapai and Apache resistance

led to Army forts and reservations.

How far towards oblivion do you seek?

Tell me about Sonoran Desert mercies,

toward drought and famine. OK,

we'll pass under power lines before you walk.

The sun comes up over Tom's Thumb

and backlights ocatillo for the camera.

This is early light dramatic shadow.

Here, the beauty of oblivion, not knowing.

Exhaustion of trail or beauty? Water thirst.

Another bus ride back. A woman slakes fear-

thirst mixing what renews for one like me.

Organic frozen fruit chunks, clear cider--

sparkling--and Passionfruit. Float orange

slices on top with skewers of dried fruit.

Jim Bodeen

28 November 2017

SHARDS OF MEMORY

When they all came,

they slept in sleeping bags,

they slept in the desert,

they build shelter from materials

that manipulated visions.

It was a manipulation

by nature of the self.

Coyotes, bobcats, javelinas.

No straight walls,

no smooth walls,

no right angles.

Always stories,

always stories.

Flat sides of rocks

and no place to sit.

Public side, private side.

Jim Bodeen

18 November 2017