San Luis Valley Blues

Could've stayed there.  I know
since I've built again
farther north.  What would
it look like?  Lots of drinking,
the hazy shade of tobacco.
I would have visited all the near
peaks and worked my tomato
garden in the August light.
I don't know.  The radiation,
all the radon in the rocks, the blank
empty sky--at least at night
I could see the stars, and
driving out ten miles

put me in the mountains,
the forest, the little
trading posts like Platoro
nestled into the heights
like they'd always been there.

There were sheepherders

with Remingtons, riding

Palominos, moving

dirty ewes and lambs

across one mountain highway.
Now, I don't know what it's
like.  I guess there was
a fire and that area's been
hit hard by a pine-killing
beetle.  There's still that
long drive into Española.
I miss that.  All the empty
hills and valleys, how
there was never
 anyone on that road.