Sacred Mesa Sunrise

I sit up

Called awake in the

Quiet of night

Crickets sing in harmony

Their volume fades with

Dimming stars

Transitioning

To space between the worlds

All is pristine silence

As an eastern pink stripe

Peels the night into dawn

I am invited out

To softly walk

With moccasin weight

To imprint red sands

and crunch grasses

Thorny brush seeds

Poke and piggy back like velcro

to the fabric of my shoes

A chill envelopes dry air

While humid exhales of my own

Mingle

I pause with my hands in pile jacket pockets

Scanning 360°

Mesa silhouettes

Of limitless openess

Waiting for solar rebirth

One robin chirps

Then more

Announcing gentle shifts

Of timeless

Arising

A fair weather barometer

Hot air balloons launch

At the horizon

I wander along an arroyo

Following tracks

When I hear

Snorts and hooves

Drum the earth

Free range horses spot me

Tossing their heads

Playfully bucking around juniper trees

Jumping over tumbleweeds

They canter toward me

And skid to a stop

I am not the hand that feeds them

Yet we regard each other curiously

Through a thin screen of swirling dust

I walk

With calm spirit

Short breaths in

Long breaths out

The sky dome merges its

Coal fired edges

Blue purple darkness thins

Lengthens and creeps away

It is the turning point of a bold new day