Janet Lowe – A Conversation With Edward Abbey
I heard about your death
and thought you’d be pleased to know
the news passed from hiker to hiker
at the bottom of the world
with the roar of Hermit Rapids
(a suitable dirge)
in our ears
and the foaming brown Colorado
numbing our blistered feet.
You would have liked it too,
I suppose,
that on the way down
the canyon threatened
to consume me,
swallow me into its bedrock
first at Supai
then Red Rock,
Blue Angel,
and finally even at
the Vishnu Schist,
but, I think, you’d also like
how I fought back, Abbey,
in spite of unmistakable
profanities hurled at the earth and tears which evaporated
before they reached the ground.
And you would have answered
my repeated question:
How in the hell am I ever going to get out of here?
quite simply.
Don’t, you’d say.
Stay.
Date: January 1, 2016
Categories: Jane Lowe