Poem: Santa Susana Foothills

 

Santa Susana Foothills

 

remnants of spiderwebs in cracks of sandstone,

of giants that gnash teeth dreaming.

and yet fractured now, these jaws 

which once screamed of ignored skulls

till a valley brimmed with their dusty breath.

now a vulture droops through sockets and cavities,

waiting for the spiders to spin again.

 

nightshade swallows the sun

deadly with the wrath of viper-on-mouse.

wind moans in a pelvis-shaped canyon

when coyotes raise their eldritch piccolos

until a few last bats paroxysm 

charred, charred, charred

over the brushless skulls of ashen slopes.

 

dawn swarms boulders spray-painted with pentacles 

next to sage leaves which cat-lick a rusty, flipped car.

maybe Charles Manson's crumpled chassis,

maybe his enslaved killer cultists',

or maybe another big bust coffin crash

from a B-grade movie set.

 

just another day in SSFCA

gnashed by sandstone,

dust and rust settling into cracks.

coyotes, vipers, bats and the 

mice and char and the wrinkled

splintered faces of rocks

near herbs as cruel and magic as cats,

such amorous murderers waiting waiting

in the char char char char char 

for the spiders to spin again.

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9/9/25 i don't know

7/23/25 ... more mods