Poem: Santa Susana Foothills

 

Santa Susana Foothills

 

remnants of spiderwebs in cracks of sandstone;

remnants of giants that gnash dreaming teeth,

fractured now, jawlines that scream of ignored skulls

till a valley brims with their dusty breath,

till a vulture droops through their sockets and cavities,

till the spiders weave again.

 

deadly nightshade swallows the sun

with the instinct-wrath of a viper on a mouse.

wind shrieks through a pelvis-shaped canyon,

coyotes raise their eldritch piccolos,

bats paroxysm over the---charred, charred, charred,

brushless ashen faces of burnt slopes.

 

dawn swarms boulders with spray-paint pentacles

near sage that cat-licks a flipped car,

maybe Charles Manson’s rusty chassis,

maybe his enslaved killer cultists,

or maybe just another big bust coffin crash

from a failed, B-grade movie set.

 

just another day, gnashed by sandstone and wind,

dust and rust settling into cracks,

coyotes, vipers, bats, mice mice mice, char char char

wrinkled, splintered faces, herbs as cruel as cats as kind as cats

amorous murderers

till the spiders weave again.

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