IN THE BIG BEND

IN THE BIG BEND(L DOUGLAS ST OURS) IN THE BIG BEND

Deep in the forgotten folds of Big Bend
Study Butte had long ago been abandoned
after the mines made fortunes in my grandfather's day.
The location of all that is left
is the farthest you can get
from an interstate highway
or a commercial airport
in the contiguous United States.

I read somewhere
that Woody Guthrie holed up there a bit
after the dust bowl during the times of Bonnie and Clyde
though that may be mere legend,
and now there's only smugglers and border agents
and things that die of thirst.

Study Butte looked more like a pile of clay
than a whistle stop hard up and played out
on the devil's side of the Mexican border,
a rusted Model A was mired, trapped,
and sunk to its axles in a dry wash
its windows had survived
sandstorms, bandits, and bullet holes,
its hood gaped wide open like a parched mouth
aching and tired of waiting for a precious drop of rain.

What was I doing there under a terrible sun
with a woman and a child
among broken buildings
vacant and violated
by desperate strangers
and the eerie wind
scavenging among the mosaic relics
in the shadow of a mine shafted hill
discovering a wooden cross
crooked and nearly toppled
inscriptions carved by a knife
in words too faded...too foreign
for me to ever understand.

by L DOUGLAS ST OURS
May 2010