Phantom Hill Diary

Smoke Signals

*** another work picked up after more than 15 years...VERY ROUGH work in progress **** 

Cigarette butts and their crumpled packs betray stories of abandonment
***a word for guilt/conviction**** by faded signs, doorless buildings
chimneys without rooms.

Anybody pulling off FM600 with the patience to walk the place
is told brackish water made them leave.
they search for evidence, a bridle bit, a piece of leather, a twinkle in the dry dirt.

Why the hell would even the homeless curl up here, 14 miles outside of Abilene?
Their evidence left for another generation
to contemplate habitation on this hill, inside this stone. 

Ford

Mortal sculpts yellow granite into chimneys
cooks used to bake bread, dig flies from dough.
Bad water not yet enough to give up quarter.

Mother searches tenth grade photos
still hope of being a doctor.
Three years of thirst
from the clear fork of the brazos swings doors open
cocked hammer of a .38 points to abandoned temples and unstoaked hearths.