Scott Hicks

Steel River

After work I took a drive to El Centro and south to the California border. A steel river flowed over the desert in corroding waves. It showed beauty in strength, its shade spread like night falls. Sand mounds were like miniature dunes, where ants endured shifting trails and tarantulas scurried for mates. I saw no one and sensed no one on the other side. Silence lingered inside side-blotched lizard tracks. Creatures adapt because rain falls elsewhere. I understand about lost promises in new days that evaporate from the weathered bones of those who failed to cross.

Mexican border autumn
heaps of bones grow higher
a wall three men high