Oenothera organensis
Organ Mountain evening primrose
Dana Dryden
Summer, the backside of the Organs
Early on the trail
Already hotter than hell
Walking with hydration
Visually parched
The goal to encounter water, if only one drop
Singular, pensive, severe
Meandering toward quiet desolation
You stop at a small rugged meadow
Gather the dreamy mineral crystallum
Gaze at the rock-spired-cathedral-towers as they reach out to God
Who gazes at you
Continue upward, footing loose
Concentrate, you must, as you pass by the Baldy
Emerging from the petrification
You arrive at the timberline
Weaving in and out of the vista pathway
The open spectacle of the desert basin, vast and longing
An illusion of mist and mountains surround still air
Time does not move
Mystically aware
You, alone
So much faster, the journey down
Running, you stop to slow your pace
Drawing it all out
Not a spot of water, still
You are not ready to make your way out
Or resume that life that you are living
At the bottom, you climb into a canyon crevice
Rest in the coolness of a shaded boulder space
Stretch as if a mountain lion
Desert cat, you are
Rising subtly, you begin the twilight return
Lifting up, there at eye level, gentle bouquets grow seemingly from sand
Delicate flowering beauty gifts
Crown this hiking day
Oenothera Organensis, the Evening Primrose
Light, lithe, rare, whimsical
Optically medicinal
Water imagined
You, alone, not abandoned
~~~~~
Dana Dryden is a graduate of the University of Arizona. She has lived and worked in New Mexico for over thirty years, focusing on journalism, government, and the arts. Currently, she resides in Las Cruces where she hikes and writes extensively.