“Some Words for the Week”

I think of eternity

as I drive to work

beneath storm clouds

stretching forever

in all directions

how this stretch of sky

has likely shown the sunrise

reflected in wildflower pastels

in the same way

back when the buffalo

shaped the front range

and the grasslands at its feet

in the image of their

thunder of hooves

how now too there is still

wondrous color above

what we have done to the land

all this concrete and waste

and despite our ruin

I realize as I sit in traffic

that once this too is gone

once we like the buffalo

and all who lived among them

are just ghosts of the plains

the sky will remain

storming and stretching

so perfectly blue

as it always has

and as it always will

above whatever thing below

thinks they will last forever

Alexander Shalom Joseph is a writer from Gilpin County. He has two published books and one more forthcoming in the Fall of 2022. For more information and to subscribe to Alexander’s Newsletter go to alexandershalomjoseph.com