zion

whatever doubts we had about
who they say dwells in the cliffs above
ground down as we wound below
mountains of seashells somehow
here in the dead of desert

laid layeronlayer longburied
in bygone seabeds later
heaved up and bleached godwhite
in the slowmotion lime of time

the clarity of eternity
suddenly stark before us
baring brevity in sharp relief

formed and drawn together
the seeing and the seen
ever eroding back into sand

2021