The Valley

It's my first day on the new job I used to teach. Today I'm doing class photos. Little girls, daughters of the parent volunteers, run in circles around my feet. I'm smiling but it's a facade. Yesterday, seventeen people needlessly had their lives uprooted and destroyed. Today people are telling me it's rude to demand gun control and infringe their rights Fucking rude. Today people are telling me it's they're classmates faults for not knowing of the coming hell. There are too many poems about people being shot but we stand here again. Every year the reaper thanks the NRA for padding their wallet. The reaper gets paid a commission of death. They care not that some of the victims haven't known love or niceness, haven't gotten to see their graduation day or get their first job. The politicians got their wages in private jets and personal gifts. They only pay out in meaningless thoughts and prayers while taking payment from the NRA. We fund death and ignorance instead of saving lives. Every school shooting is our reward for complacency. How many souls do we owe to the gun manufacturers? How many souls to the right to take lives at eight hundred fifty feet per second? How many souls to this worship of death machines while our future bleeds out in front of it's locker because we can't bring ourselves to confront the cause? I go to work scared that something will happen and a shooter will show up. It doesn't matter if their reason is because this school has a high Latino population or because they're just another angry white man. Because the reaper doesn't care. They get their pay and we get our heartbreak Either way we just lose and lose and lose Don't give me this thoughts and prayers bullshit if you aren't willing to help solve it Image Description: A rocky mountain valley. A railroad crosses a small steel bridge in the bottom left corner. Most of the plants are either evergreens or scrub-type plants. There’s a sliver of a stream or river in the right bottom third. A big rocky mountain comes down to meet a dirt road in the left half of the photo. A blue sky with fluffy clouds takes up the top third.

That Old Specter

You are in pain, Let me help you I’ve known you a short time I feel like I’ve known you since mammoths walked I feel like your pain is my pain and the only way to relieve it Is to grieve and hurt with you You, my lover, my friend, stranger on the street who let me into your soul Let me help you shoulder that pain Nobody can cure the holes in our souls, fill them in with dirt, right away But together, we can start. And they might still look like fresh graves in a month or in a decade But we all deserve help stamping down that dirt, or putting flowers on it Whatever grieving and help look like, we all deserve love We all deserve that light Grieve. Let the feelings happen. It is okay. Find someone who loves you. Let them comfort you. If you feel like doing so is a burden, let me tell you, one heavy heart to another I know how hard it is to reach out I know that the shadow of depression leeches out your soul It’ll tell you that you are dragging them down It’ll help you put your hand down, it’ll breathe your voice for you, it’ll move your mouth And it’ll say, for you, “I am fine” You and I know otherwise. We aren’t okay. Fine is a liar. That old shadow hangs around every word, telling you lies Your friends don’t care You’re alone You don’t deserve help. It’s a liar. It’s a specter convincing you that you don’t deserve niceness. You do. You deserve someone sitting next to you Standing next to you Messaging you “You are not alone” You deserve someone who listens Who cares Who is willing to help you shoulder your pain That old specter will always be with us, taunting us Haunting us Let’s try to keep them at bay, to help each other weather their assaults Because you deserve that. You deserve someone who helps you take a break. You deserve help, and you deserve happiness. Image Description: A wide valley with snow-capped mountains from one edge of the frame to the other. The top half of the picture is a blue sky with fluffy clouds. The bottom third is a snow-covered frozen lake. There are pine trees along the center of the photo, coming in from both edges and stretching toward the mountains. A lone snowman is near the center of the frame.

Zippers Stretched From One End of the Valley to the Other

Sometimes We Have to Get Close

And We'll All Float On Okay

Image Description: A greenish river flows over rocks between two stone river banks. There are white water rapids in places. White-barked aspen with golden leaves grow on the bank behind the river, with a few evergreens. The sky is blue with white clouds.

Will You Walk the Path With Me?

Image Description: A black and white photograph of a mountain valley. There is a road traveling from the bottom left to the top right, disappearing around a mountain bend. A winding river follows alongside the road. The mountains are covered in evergreen trees. Above the treeline, the mountains are barren. The sky is cloudy.

The World Moved On

Image Description: A railroad switch signal is in the foreground. It is old, rusted, and all the lights are broken. In the background, along the bottom third of the photo, are rocky mountains with evergreen trees on them. The top two thirds of the background is taken up by a sky with white clouds in it.

A Legacy, A Photograph, A Legend

Image Description: A black and white photograph of the Maroon Bells at dawn. The tops of the peaks are covered in clouds. There is a reflection of the mountains in the water in the lower two-thirds of the photo. Trees of various colors cover the mountains to the left and right, and the upper slopes of the Maroon bells are rocky and snow-covered.

Quiet Voices Sing in the Forest While Fairies Dance

Image Description: A black and white photograph of wind chimes hanging from a tree. The chimes are rusty and centered in the frame. From the main circular piece, four smaller bell-like pieces hang down. On the left is the white bark of an Aspen tree. There are blurred out trees in the background.

Can We Learn to Look Up?

Image Description: A night landscape. A pair of railroad tracks runs through a grassy field from the bottom of the image to the horizon, about a third of the way up. There are trees on the right in the foreground, and building lights on the horizon. In the sky, there are faint clouds and stars.

The Cacophony Assaulted Our Senses

Image description: Black and white photograph. A very reflective building with an all-glass exterior rises on the left. A concrete building with tall, vertical black windows rises parallel to that on the right. In between the two is a building made up of rows of windows and concrete. A few street lights and other buildings are visible at the bottom of the photo.

Commercial Goods for Commercial Gods

Image Description: Black and white photo of a city street. the sky has mild clouds, and there are cars stopped at a traffic light, facing away. Tall buildings rise on both sides, reflecting each other in the windows. The road is centered, and goes up and over a hill, out of sight.

The Gods Never Went Away, They Became New Idols

Did We Ever See The Sun?

Partial Reflections Are Still Part of a Whole

Image Description: A black and white photo of a building corner, looking upward at it. The windows are all black, and there is a shadow across part of it.

Sleepy Eyelids in Brick Faces

Will You Walk With Me?

She Spread Her Wings to Dry, Preparing to Roost for the Night

The Corn Wasn't Cradled, But We Went Through the Motions All the Same

Maybe Stairs Aren't So Bad

They Painted With Only the Best Seeds

The Snow Covered Our Tracks So We Had to Make New Ones

The Gods Decided to Show Us Beauty

We Realized We Never Left Happiness

When Will We See Our Destination?

The Last Wild Places Were Saved For Tourists

At the End of the Day, We Have Our Legacies

It Only Rings When a Loved One is Near

The Only Ceilng Blocking Us Was Made of Clouds

When They Saw Us, They Were Unafraid

Happiness is the Road

Were We Ever Alone?

Have I Seen You Before?

We Didn't Know What We Came From, Only Where We Were Going

Hold My Hand, I'm Self Destructing

In the Quiet Places, the Eskimo Curlew Still Sings

When I Touch You, I'm Memorizing Your Texture

I Have Scars Only I Can See But They Fade When You're Here

Please Stay And Talk With Me

"The Priests of Industry Cried Out, But Their Voices Held No Power Here"

We Called Out to Our Gods, But They Weren't Real

When I Danced, It Was Full of Joy

White-barred Emperor 01

Malachite 01

Paper Kite 01

Tailed Jay 01

After the Peace, Our Voices Were Lost in the Roar

For a Moment, All Was Peace