I lay in bed that night,  
watching auto headlights
flicker on a wall.  
I thought,
Could you be mine?  

Sounds of freeway-hardened, speeding
truckmen echoed in from midnight.
Wildcat calls that crossed the city
prowled through my darkened room.  
Will you care?  
I thought.
My heart beat fast
from wondering where that path
would lead.

I began in sunny morning
on a prairie highway.  
Mountains rose,
bare monuments reminding me
of Titans' battles
fought to the death
in the ancient days.  
Sentinels of a gone forever
cast down here,
as quiet guards
on watch above me.  
They lined a dim, heat-gray horizon,
with each scraped-down rockface
rising.
Reaching cliffs seemed to try and catch
whatever moisture
that might fall
still
from a blue-white dusty sky.  

Will you see
and freely take
or turn
away?  
     
Soon I found you
at the desert's edge
by a place of sand and sagebrush haven.  
You bore me off to show
a vast arroyo
panorama
to my eager eyes.  
There a river chorus
sounded and fell
through a wind-rock whited well
in a canyon gorge.  
This place where mountain split in twain
to baptize plain and city
enfolded us
within its shadow.  
We stopped to rest
by water's edge.  

What will be
your answer?  
Could you ever
stoop to take my
hand
in yours?

So there, amid the waters' glittering wonders
I bestowed my words,
while foam and breeze
rushed wild
over nearby boulders.  
The airy sunglare hung there lazy
over white-rapids' restless
hazy motion.
Mayflies flew about our heads
like children at their noontime play
of leapfrog games,
in free abandon.  

Strange, my words
I don't remember,
but even now
I know.
I told you of my
wish.  

As I watched the river's
bright reflected lights
dance
in your eyes,
I knew.
That day we would begin
a joyful journey
ever hoping, seeking, taking,
all as one.