SCENE THROUGH THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR
Jana Sequoya

The prairie is a high green sea
wild with late summer bloom
& the spirit world
is dense with Indians
but the desert is a mirror
of the people, resigned
to live out the hard questions,
curled up against easy answers--
tumbleweed stopped
by incongruent fences

I loved you because
I am water and you
were the thirstiest man I saw.
Our ancestors knew
there are no guarantees:
when a horse is led to drink,
it's only an answer
to a question of time.