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 

that once screamed of ignored skulls

till a valley brimmed with their dusty breath

and now a vulture droops through sockets and cavities,

waiting for the spiders to spin again.

 

nightshade swallows the sun

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

the wind moans through a pelvis-shaped canyon

as coyotes raise their eldritch piccolos

and a few last bats paroxysm 

charred, charred, charred

over the brushless faces of ashen slopes.

 

dawn swarms boulders spray-painted with pentacles.

sage leaves nearby cat-lick a flipped car.

maybe Charles Manson’s rusty chassis,

maybe his enslaved killer cultists,

or maybe another big bust coffin crash

from a B-grade movie set.

 

just another day in CA

gnashed by sandstone,

dust and rust settled into cracks.

coyotes, vipers, bats and the 

mice mice mice char char char

and the wrinkled splintered faces of rocks

nears herbs as cruel or kind as cats,

those amorous murderers waiting waiting 

for the spiders to spin again.

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7/23/25 ... more mods