Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon
Yong Wan Choi 09.22.11

The naked son of the sun
lies limbs outstretched in the silent wilderness

On his way down, the crust of the earth cracked;
thunder, lightning, and waterfalls shook the plateau
rugged ridges overturned, valleys reaching downward
a shard of sky flows on the floor a thousand fathoms deep

Sunlight and deep shade facing each other for a billion years
on cliffs where the earth's inner flesh bulges out and bars the way
heaven and earth together bore through a miracle
on the faded-emerald waters of the Colorado River
flows the old grief of native villages, become legend

At the foot of strange cliffs of blood-soaked earth piled layer on layer
the drumbeat of Indians dancing with wolves
returns through years of rise and fall and pounds the pulse

To the songs of the torch dance rising with the full moon
an ancient tree, spine bent, grown from a crack in the rock
looks at the white moon and draws its bowstring

(A gift to myself on the day I turn 74)