Gathering Morning Fire
Thinking this may be the last time
sets my mind drumming
on what I had always meant to do.
So humor me and go in darkness
to the Colorado prairie
to watch this April day unfold.
We'll sit cross-legged on the sand hills,
lean back against the rolling wind,
and fill our lungs with aromatic sage.
We'll watch dawn's wildfire spread on the horizon,
the silhouettes of pronghorn flowing down the ridge,
and hear from bowls of darkness the dance of grouse begin.
I'll cradle the memory of another morning,
when a nurse comes to shave my thighs and stomach,
then rolls me pinioned on a cart toward the knife.
So go with me to gather fire from this dawning,
as it ignites the eastern sky, and pray
that as surely as the sun rises, so again may I.
Author: Kaye Bache-Snyder
Photography: Sam Laundon
