Pilgrimage
Between El Paso and Phoenix dust devils swirl
to Beethoven's Fifth while sun burns my eyes.
Living in this forsaken land is unimaginable
until I see shadows fall on desert hills
beneath a stretch of sky. And I think of Georgia O'Keeffe
traipsing across New Mexico with easel and water colors dislodging
dark days of New York her lover old enough to be her father
posing her day after day in his studio
infatuations in black and white portraitures of impeccable restraint.
The year I'm born Stieglitz dies. She escapes to open plains
and cloud vistas where nothing presses
no camera traps no skyscraper blocks.
She expands into space
whiteness of bone on red hills.
–chella courington