Simon Joseph Ortiz (1941-)

Storming Toward a Precipice

            A diesel freight truck

            roars toward us.

            A precipice is no mirage

            for its metal plunge.

            It is headlong nevertheless.

            "It carries its own storm,"

            I say dryly, feeling

            my tongue wet my lips.

            Trapped steel storming,

            the faint line just so,

                              just inches

                              just split time,

                              just nothing more

            than luck keeps us alive.

            The mirage of metal storming

            is a precipice, no mirage.

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Online text copyright © 2005, Ian Lancashire for the Department of English, University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Ortiz, Simon J. After and Before the Lightning. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994: 49.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2004
Recent editing: 1:2004/6/30

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Other poems by Simon Joseph Ortiz