By Ian Erickson
Strands of desert – elongated yellow taffy.
Pricks of trees – painted things.
Another hour, windshield, gas.
A forest before thoughts.
Cold A/C – stings the edges of your face – your upper arm smoothly numb.
The engine – roars as the car tilts up and smooths as the two lanes slope and slope. The hours churn with the voices in the car beside you; an impactful voice – a crime podcast, The most recent song to stay in your head- poppy and clinging to the brain, with a dull undertone.
Beside you, behind you, is your means to live.
The painted road is brighter, the Park is up ahead.
When your legs stiff up, and your back resumes its proper shape,
When you pay the entrance computer, when your head swirls for a sign.
When you find a brilliant space, front and focused, and the world turns silent for a moment.
You race and try to hide your smile. People walk your way, already changed, they were there before you.
You walk, but your heart runs. You twist and strive…a leap of
And the ground stretches into a railing, and there is the painting you have heard all about.
Do you ever assign a weight
To how the baggage inside
Effects the art of the world?
You distract to ruminate.
You apply logic to the senseless
Placing patterns, miniature mazes, randomized lines.
And your senses betray.
Yes, there is a painting.
In the Grand Canyon you can touch a rock that is 1.84 billion years old. Yes, you are within a machine.
The sun sets on smears of orange, rotations of brown, and slices of white.
In the morning there is a chiming gift shop for tourists,
A forgotten campfire low to the floor,
A lost and found, and a passenger tram.
Welcome. The clouds pass over these too.
And in the morning, you see how they pass, how they travel. Their casted shadows imprint into rocks,
Altering the cliffs into dips and pure jagged peaks.
The light replaces ghosts as they weave the canvas.
The weight accomplishes.
The engine is on.
Not a clear day.
Not a clear day.
Author Bio
Ian Erickson
Ian Erickson is a senior college student, and works as a Teacher’s Assistant at a special education high school in California. As a child, he was placed in the Foster Care system, and currently advocates and gives back to disadvantaged youth. Ian is actively seeking to publish his first novel, a Young Adult Thriller.