The Valley Before Shadow Fall (a poem)

 

In the beginning the spirit moved
upon the face of the deep
bringing light
and darkness comprehended it not

  Hills that were cut by erasion
of sediments metamorphosed by ancient oceans
had life drift in with breezes
raising an ecospheric quotient

  Athabaskan sojourners sought the true
getting their bearings from skies too blue
wandering down toward Navajo land
just to see; to prove they can

  Hunting the mammoth, saber tooth and bear
until no predators of size were alive somewhere
and  the valley weilded giant forests
as woodlands sang ripe nature’s chorus

  So battles were fought with knife and bow
spear tips, atlatls and arrows to go
where other humans breathed and stood before
time could close another door

  Blue soldiers lie waiting
in the woods barrels focused
for grazing fire at the knees
over the quiet brook

  Cavalry readied to break free
from fetters of motionlessness
racing falling leaves
to die in the season’s end

  Elk were driven away by the highway noise
grizzlies were stuffed and mounted
litter and junk cast aside
began to fill the meadow

  Global warming deniers
rumbled along roads
bulldozed inimically to the natural course
water flowed from the highlands

  Like a hotel room in spacetime
meadow constructions displaced environmental matter
human wars and destruction passed too
landscape for-itself to the hereafter.