Anthony DiMichele
Mindspring
I went to the mindspring
an oasis in a desert
the place has been off limits to humans
since the 1930s
and so has gone wild
I was the first white man there
to see such vast vistas
and to hear the silence
that was immense
it covered me and everything else
with its invisible blanket
I knew in my heart which was suddenly
enlarged
what it meant to be part of the earth
rather than an occupant
of rented space
there were no other humans on earth
but me and there were
a few flies
the mountains were punched up and isolated
blocks of jagged rock
the alluvium
crept up their sides in low
long slopes
they were alive and almost
organic
I too was detached
and part of it all
I did not need a hand to hold or
the reassurance that someone else
was just over the hill or at home
waiting
I wanted to crouch down in the sun
expectant but for what
I did not know…
now I am back
not deeply changed
but more solitary than ever before
our place is in the wild
by the ocean or in desert spaces
places where we are neither beggars
nor kings
but bits of the foundational dust
eternal
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