Wanderers
After Stephen Shu-ning Liu
Descending
into a mass tourism cash grab
this time a slot canyon
your Navajo guide stops
to show the vantage point
where countless screensavers have been taken
tempting but you’d rather
catch booted feet in sand
or run
fingertips on sandstone,
frigid to the touch.
Across time
to Olympian jungles in Beijing
a stranger blows smoke
at you in a beige-washed bar
hollowed out like the insides
of a momma whale—
this expat playground resembles
your North American underground,
striated, chilled.
Baptized by rain
seared by winged serpent fire,
you hopscotch your way between the chasms.
Judi Mae “JM” Huck is an arts administrator currently based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the Clark County Poet Laureate coordinator and a teaching artist for both literary and visual arts. Follow her on Instagram @bandittrl.
The Marbled Sigh 