Goodbye Anubis: the path of the prairie-dog (formerly platte river blues but got lost somewhere in Nevada)

from riding...from the raven...from the air, smoke and clouds.
I feel you. I must find you. though she tells me to beware, I don't care.
But it wasn't me you were looking for, it wasn't me nor will it ever be,
I said to the eye as I lay on the floor. your amethyst quetzal eyes.
you're looking for a man, a long feathered man, and you're delicately watching
as you were Set to do,
But the man you're looking for -
he's behind you.

The hawk that flew high above the waterfall carries a match in the edge of its jaw
fly to the smokestack of the factory where planes are built for war
to the furnace on the airport's 21st floor
fly with your amethyst eye
over wheatflields, cold and grey
oh child my child your smoke I see rising
you'll make it to the airforce base one day.

THE WEST

oh how it is to be a prairie-dog in the land of coyotes.
now out here, the coyote guides those who follow in the path of the prairie-dog.
back and forth through the evergreen desert and the volcanic hills.
and I could do this for ever, I don't really want to leave...
but it is not for a lack of living responsively, to live "keeping up with the coyote."

Boulder Red Rocks: The Deer Up Here

The deer up here are different: stockier, longer legs, larger ears, smaller tails with no white - more like elk. The small-antlered doe was sitting cutely in a low area of the red rocks hillside. Are these "Red Deer?" Also these deer are more tolerant of people (well you're surrounded by animal lovers not rednecks and hunters, so....

Boulder Creek, Boulder Canyon: it only gets better

oh to reach a canyon in the Rockies without a car. By bus and on foot. Amazing! Boulder really does rock. Where is my caribou?
They call it Goat Rock. or Elephant Buttress. and the creek below has a spot called Jones' Hole where people play music and swim and picnic and watch rock climbers. The perfect spot really, to catch the breeze. But it still gets better. Climbing up the Rock the breeze becomes wind, flowerpetals fly through the air, the sun westward makes a halo with its golden glow and it was gold that urged the white man through this canyon. This is the Athens of the West and the Dahlonega of the Rockies, wrapped together in one. Denver pigeons give way to Boulder white-throated swifts.

...
carved into concrete on the Boulder Creek Bike Trail:
"Chief Niwot will get you and so will Jesus"

CLEAR CREEK CANYON AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN PARK: Golden, CO

One evening, two new friends took me to the closest canyon and mountain park, just under 30 minutes from downtown Denver. One road goes down – following Clear Creek upstream into a long canyon, another goes way up – up Lookout Mountain to a park (which contains Buffalo Bill's gravesite, closed by the time we arrived). Two Lookout Mountains in two weeks! Lookout!
We watched the sun set from near the mountaintop, and it was awe-inspiring. And the wind blew me to the rocks near the edge, in the kindest way possible.

the sunset side, then the city side



for more about Lookout Mountain, go here

PLATTE RIVER BLUES: DENVER, CO

My first steps in Denver off the bus at Market St. station gave me chills, for a cold front had just come through, and wind and rain were moving in. I was to meet my friend at a cafe called Paris on the Platte, just across the South Platte River via the 16th St. Pedestrian Mall. The mall has this amazing free shuttle bus, running every few moments the mall's length from the river to the Broadway/Colfax intersection. At this part of the river, where it meets Cherry Creek, the city has preserved a long series of parks, with walking trails and historical markers, stone patios, and a rocky shoal (presumably not natural). This continues to be my favorite spot in the city, I'll sit here regardless of the wind and rain, for I like the freshwater smell here and I feel peace. A woman and a girl toss stones behind me into the still-polluted river and see shells on the shore. Birds of all kinds fly around me.
This was once the home of Southern Arapahoe peace chief Little Raven (Young Crow), who once welcomed the west-bound white settlers with gold in their eyes: “Take the gold! Just don't stay long.” His story is told at the park, on the Platte's south bank. Take the young crow by his song, I'll sit here in the rain but I can't stay long.