Poems by Joe Pan

Zions & Environs

by Joe Pan

From Canary Winter 2015-16

Joe lives on a sloping hilltop beside the East River, itself resting on a bedrock of Fordham gneiss, Gardiners and Raritan clay, and an unusual stratum of glacial silt. His drinking water arrives by way of the Delaware, Catskill, and Croton watersheds.

Mesa wind, snow crunched
underfoot—resistance
is how we come to know desire

Ant lost
among monolithic snails—
Bryce Canyon at dusk

Horse between my legs
carries the extra weight
of breakfast on his mind

Canyon snow—
if there is a point to all this,
the hoodoos aren’t talking

Canyon walls
& my horse dressed
in the same rough color

Desert moon
inhabits the empty frame
of mind