Can I capture it and keep it?
I want to take it home.
The lens shutters at the red rock towers
I tremble at the Camel's Kiss
As their shadows cup the
Mountainside: a heart of light,
Love unending, eternal bliss.
I covet it.

Can I capture it and keep it?
I want not to forget
That rounded stone ramp curved
In supplication; fingered
Boulders clasping each other
In voiceless prayer swirling to
Heaven in the red dust:
Eternity flaking, crying
Out from the rocks, eternally.
So I don't forget the earth groans too,
I take it.

The heights are calling. This
Garden of the Gods
Is only stalling us. This too shall
Pass away.
But I will capture them and keep them:
Those curves of pleasure
Cupping their faces forever,
If only to recall the crisp ascent
From a shadowy cleft
Each woman took
To peaks of flaming glory.

Garden of the Gods, CO; Spring Break, March 2014