A momentary loss of footing
Sent a few pebbles
and a body tumbling down
A wheel gets more rounded over time
Falling over the rounded ledge of the cliff
Two sharp pains
Grabbing the cactus as a final self arrest
And the scream that tumbled after me
Desert cotton
blowing across the smooth stones
of the river bottom
Follow the drift
settling onto the Salt
to begin another drift
towering cottonwoods
producing the only shade in the desert
and the only soft
An exhale floats through the sunlight
glittering through the leaves
Hauling out trash
embedded in embankments
And the only whisper through the wind that remains
is we’re so lucky