There’s a city in the cliffs
Where at night I know you wish to hear
Yourself as silence. 

There are the birds in the cracks that swarm 
With kamikaze formation during
The day,
Singsongs of war and territory, 
Fights for nests in holes 
Once Sprouted springs 
Of sandstone rain. 

There are the crickets of the setting sun  
Layered chirps sounding like a river’s near, 
Sonic bowings on their wings, 
As Earth as mulch or air, 
Constant and assured. 

Crumbles echo
Down go fallen rock
One squirrel, 
Scraping ground far above on heaven’s ground 
Pebbles drop and they flee
Cascade towards the bed of their canyon,
Yearning with
Pounces of desire,
They scream 
Like you, they want them known.

The shivering leaves in the dead of Sun — 

Too tired for the siren glow of the rising moon. 

They’ve all calmed. 

The crimson of our setting star,
Its reprise of mauve and marigold, 
All has calmed and settled for you,
You
Now
Standing in the city in the cliffs
Back turned from the shadows of these relic tales  
The ruins of the Anasazi – 

Not a breed of man but neither the translation of ancient man, 

Its definition, the term, the term’s definition
Needs defining. 

But you don’t know that do you? 

The Hopi neé Anasazi, 
Neé Ancient man, 
They too knew that cities become tombs. 

Like Pompeii, 
Present day LA
Mausoleums of traded resource, 
The emboldened passion for survival and luxury, 
Dried corn and roasted yucca, 
IG stories, DSLR, 
They’re all the same to you. 

Your phone is your kiva, 
Your veiled pleasantries desiring affection and attention, 
The need to be seen your mortar. 

You hear yourself in silence, 
Amongst an orchestra of ghosts
And yet
Your eyes scream towards your Black-mirrored ally, 

It’s not enough to be alone
No, you need them all to see you alone. 

You take pictures of your feet at the 
Grand Canyon
Then face your back towards its Sunset 

To ensure the colors you want other
People
To know you’ve 
Seen came out the way you wished to have truly experienced it. 

You edit to form, 
Edit towards expectation, 
Never mind the reality you’re given.