Utah

Bonsaied junipers twisted by the wind

Black skeleton pinyons

Silhouetted against intense blue

Striated canyon walls

Carved by millennia

The river’s entrenched meandering

Rising up from the paradoxical sea

To which they will one day fall,

Eyeless guardians on watchtowers

Overlook crumbling ochre castles

Pyramids and parthenons

Eroded crenellations and turrets

Ruined skyscrapers

Built layer by sandstone layer

Entrada

Keyanta

Wingate

Navaho

Geology both architect and destroyer