san jacinto

(November 2022. Took the aerial tramway from Palm Springs up to San Jacinto peak. I actually wrote this in my notebook, it’s one of the only notebook poems that’s lowercase like my phone poems.)

san jacinto

in snowy southern california
san jacinto sunrays streak from the desert
mirror shrieking bright upwards to the eyes of the snow

the height of winter closer to the sun reaching from sand
for the sake of squirrels scurrying
and pining for god
mercy safe in snowpack

the last green peak eastward the wrinkling
of the brown rivulets settling
the texture of the vastness of wasteland
mountains brown and bluing
across Palm Springs and the valley to the edge
of the Salton Sea, the ghost of Lake Cahuilla

i saw the owl last night
i must be on the right path