Night, desert driving.
Let’s put the top down!
But it’s 103 degrees 
even now in the dark.
Stop over for the night.
The sun only catnaps, so
we doze with her, then wake
to chase those foothills up ahead.
A worn old road winds
and climbs.
With the pressure change,
a change in mood,
a satisfying solitude
there together.
Soon, the shouts of
rushing falls,
water calling out to dirt.
And the smell,
rich evergreen perfume,
A promise from the earth—
I was always meant to
have you here.
My hair whips in the wind.
You flash a sun-glassed smile,
and we climb.
Soon we will be among the giants.
Wise old women with rough skins
and soft hearts. I feel the secrets
they grip in their roots.
I am a human woman
on this spinning sphere,
Put in my proper place here,
Dwarfed by history.
Time here exists only
as height
and circumference.
I’m made small again in
space and time,
Humbled anew in my own mind,
Brought back to a place
of stillness, wonder.
Something of the spirit
hums here.
You tell me I’m the one humming.