Canyon Country

From a mountain, looking out, you can see
immense cavalcades of ridges
and corduroys of parallel lines
that reach to the furthest border.

From here, the horizon looks jagged.
Much closer stand armies of fins, 
the edges lined up
and in order.

This is a standing up country
where rock has been lifted by time.
Some mountains here are still rising
and sandstone wears slowly down.

Freeze and thaw cycles chip and shape crudely. 
Blowing sand grinds and shapes
as by hand. 
Rock castles split and chip to talus.

This land makes abundantly clear
how impermanent we soft humans are:
only fat, bone and muscle at most.

Man is ephemeral and weak,
and does not have the right to speak
of achievement, not out loud,
in this sand and rock-hardened land.