Poem: Mostly from an Earth Science Worksheet on Depressions

Below sea level, eroded
by winds and dust, in a wilderness
of quicksand and marsh: this broad feature.

Sandstorm fog can blot out the sun
above a dry lake bed, or travel
elsewhere to fall with rain. Sometimes,

one has to look back and back and back
to trace a petal to its seed. Sometimes,
all a body can do is talk, just talk.

This article appears in July 2009.