Poetry

American Sky
 
Warm and dry
Californian sky-
That first
Spanish taste in Angeles’ glare
No zephyr to
purge Downtown’s shadow.
Freed from the
Valley’s crucible
Cocooned in
air-con, going East to the West
To see America’s sky.
 
Mojave
brightness caps light ochre soil,
Blue ever
present, ruffled by haze
Nevada’s inferno streaked with contrails.
Santa Fe railroad climbs an azure grade
Bisecting Arizona, Route 66
hitches a ride.
Reflecting the
sapphire: America’s
sky.
 
One-eighty
turn North, to the Colorado’s
deep child.
Strata of rust
and sage, give way to cerulean vault.
Aeons of
creation bringing light to the floor.
Painted
Desert, its
watercolour horizon
Frames a
meteorite’s arc- deep clear backdrop
A sunset
volcano ignites America’s
sky.
 
Monumental red
cathedrals, in dusty glory
Punching heavenwards,
the stagecoach’s goal.
Navajo light
is weaving their claim.
Emerald blue Tahoe
illuminates the Sierra’s
Cold clear
march. Through gold’s wild man
To Manzanar,
teardrop in America’s
sky.
 
Yosemite,
primeval in majesty carves its space
Pines and firs
lance upward, with meadows of
Colour
breathing crystal air.
Angels
returning to view as green cedes to brown,
Smoke black
horizon drapes gauze on the sun.
The fires of
renewal streak America’s
sky.
 
 
 
 
Anthony
Marriner © September 2006