Explanation of Arizona

See there, south, over the range,
down the road past Ralph Lauren’s ranch,
the sandblasted expanse, the holy lands--
Arizona looms, a dime in a dollar nation.

Hear the rumble of cattle trucks at 3 a.m.,
the tumult of Ohioans fleeing tornados,
bankruptcies, divorces, economic forces,
see nickle-made cowboys on false horses.

In Chicago they read magazines
about Sedona roads and they run there,
trampling the Navajo, the Apache, the Hopi,
who are holding back the end of the world.

Feel the hot winds smooth the sandstone,
the cold river California drinks.
In another time, they’d be a happy,
redoubtable people.

Count the three million men, women,
children, dogs, llamas, elephants,
and, oh yeah, proud monkeys, too.
See the pyramid perched at the zoo.

When the army came
to inprison the Apache
they left experimental camels
to wander from Yuma to Harqua Halla.

Get a good price for a skull
in Skull Valley. See the hollow
nostrils, blood fright, little white lies
about real estate & the fourth estate.
Touch the bomb trigger
that killed Don Bolles.
Feel the dying pulse
of Goldwater Republicans.

Glimpse the ancien’ regime,
the descending gyre
of infused Northlanders
from New York, Minneapolis,
Acropolis, too (two).

See that man is a city
& the city is a man.
Kiss the fine girl there
with a Greek name,
buttery desires.

Read her awkward green eyes
on the way to her dead-end job
in the half-filled
office complex.

Analyze her weakening resolve
at the touch of my hand
on her smooth brown knee--
her shudder engendered there.

Then see her drift away,
seeking younger men,
who keep coming, coming
from California,
which is pushing pestilence
like a saleman,
carbon monoxide in winter,
the angel’s breath in spring.