An ongoing series of travel poetry and photography.
ALTUS
New keys
turn in old locks
in the heartland
that high ground
where the west wind howls
in the shadow of the Wichitas
Okie soil
turned & tilled
by blood of mine
those gaping doorways
[open mouths]
those slapping shutters
[old man’s eyelashes]
blinking out one by one
like lanterns in the valley
but the lake is full in Ozarka!
and the unmoving eye
of our childhood cave
still stares
across the plains
unknowing.
SOUTH RIM
Overgrown Hopi hotel
mountain cat stalks
through empty streets
abandoned trading posts
blister & break
in the western wind
hissing and howling
new faces with old expressions.
SODOM BY THE SEA
High above
from Getty’s mount
she screams & whines
in summer’s drought
the beast adorned
with crown of smog
on being born
the ocean bog
pull us deeper
pits of tar
our souls are mingled with the Mastodon
the after bomb
future future
learning on new legs
drinking the old dregs
trapped in her own webs
while buffalo run free
on Catalina Island.
photography by Danielle Hillman Miller
Instagram @tooyoungtobehippies
words by Landon Lloyd Miller
Instagram @thewallchargers