Caldera by Taylor Graham - Your Daily Poem

Caldera
by
Taylor Graham

Beyond the little siphon-creek

with its pond of tadpoles and swaying

grasses, where we called our dogs back

from sniffing into reeking damps,

we climbed through mesa-

country; took an unmarked washboard

road. Platitudes of all our travels:

go invisible as wind; camp on the edge

of no place with a name; pack up at dawn

and leave no trace, not even fire-pit ashes.

That night it snowed.

Hyakutake parked above us, shining

its comet headlight down from a blacktop

sky spitting flaky white.

After midnight, a ghost-girl

stumbled into my dream and slumped

so cold against the tent, I let her

have my sleeping bag. Our dogs snored

through it.

At first-light I called

them from their own night visitations.

Gear stowed in the truck, we drove

back out over washboard.

Abundant time to determine

which way next. Another of our

platitudes: take the slow route

that doesn't show on a map; try to see

what nobody thought to mention.

Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada. Author of numerous books, her work is also included in the anthologies Villanelles (Everyman's Library, 2012) and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). Taylor's current project, What the Wind Says, forthcoming from Lummox Press, is a collection of dog poems about living with her canine search partners over the past 40 years. Learn more about Taylor at www.somersetsunset.net.

Wilda Morris:
The "blacktop sky" - what a fresh and wonderful image!
Posted 11/10/2013 04:33 PM

dotief@comcast.net:
Wonderful!
Posted 11/10/2013 09:08 AM

TheSilverOne:
Every line, magic. Read it several times, making new discoveries each time. Beautiful!
Posted 11/10/2013 08:19 AM

jeanie:
i love the ghost girl ... & taking the slow route. this poem is magic, yes.
Posted 11/10/2013 08:11 AM

Larry Schug:
This poem's got the magic ingredient-texture. Paying attention is so rewarding, eh?
Posted 11/10/2013 07:23 AM

fer:
I keep returning to the part about the comet -- that is so beautiful.
Posted 11/10/2013 04:52 AM

Eiken:
Beautiful work, you took me right there with you. :) Maire in Ireland.
Posted 11/10/2013 04:33 AM

Contents of this web site and all original text and images therein are copyright © by Your Daily Poem. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchasing books through any poet's Amazon links helps to support Your Daily Poem.
The material on this site may not be copied, reproduced, downloaded, distributed, transmitted, stored, altered, adapted,
or otherwise used in any way without the express written permission of the owner.