Seminole Canyon
midday in desert country, summer
shimmers at the vanishing point
a lone hawk polishes the deep blue
you wipe the sweat from your brow
crunch bone-dry limestone underfoot
proceed with the curiosity of coyote
ears up, beady-eyed stealth in the sacred
stark scrub nine miles west of Comstock
middle of nowhere / center of everywhere
this is big sky country where roadrunner
runs the gambit: el paisano, brave messenger
blur against the bruise loud on the horizon
the rock shelter is a sanctuary to the creation
of time / birth of the sun / yesterday and every
day: blackened ceiling, smoothed work stone
rock wall a layered mural of graphic fable verse
a fiesta of plant and iron ore paints, and you
are but a fly to an ancient text, witness to the
white shaman / lunar goddess, arms out-
stretched summoning wide hope in the
haze of a dream that’s barely half-awake
Jenna Heller is an American-Kiwi working, writing, and playing near the beach in Christchurch, New Zealand. As a fiction writer, she has won a handful of awards and appeared in the last two editions of Best Small Fictions (Sonder Press). In 2021, she was runner-up in the Caselberg International Poetry Prize.
You can see more of Jenna's work in 10.1 and 5.2 and 7.2 and 9.1 and 9.1