brianbrock.com firm, fear-fell - tender and tearful - Truth tears at the happy heart-felt - in olden pages? folt center shines - fact nor faces, name nor mine nor Thine west of Carson, overcast sitting in the yellow car in the rain reading at and about Peter Putnam physicist who tried to figure out his mind which writes his body as a sin a jackrabbit leisurely took flight then a time later comes a badger i call his name - i love him it waddled away in a haste dusk, walking up the road a commotion of animal feetprint worried of wildcats, not quite dressed i picked up a stick as a weapon followed a sandy trail of claw marks the sun dipping under the clouds a gleam grows to an arc of clear colors up the mist next to Tres Orejas under the glow i crept down to a creekbed a solitary juniper over a still pool red indian paintbrush in the grass and of a sudden the rainbow dims walk back clutching the dirty branch elken grunts, coyote song the rainbow returns now all in pink the whole sky faded to pink light writing these inversions into my phone the mouse a mouse upset my sleeping place scrabbling as i barked and pounced from frantic dreams i cornered her an open door - she leapt outside darkness drops - no anxious scratch no quivering ears, no too-large eyes i sleep in quiet sterility o mousie! faint heart! return! campsite sagebrush, heat-heavy wind scritch scratch - eyes follow ears a banana peel blackening in the desert beetle jaws scraping the dry pith today i checked the beetle’s peel not even a mark - such wasted work! hummingbirds visit under the pinyons mouse prints mottle the sandy floor no exit motorcycle music dopplers down the highway dogs’ ashes rest where once they slept today i camp on hidden desert roads no tramway up No Exit’s rocky steeps the tractor leaks oil a bit shiny concrete smudge the handbrake is stuck or is she weaker now? last summer in the rain the lush grass choked the mower walking back the just-cut trail her hip winced every step poems, brian brock, summer 2025