meteor crater, Winslow Az. - a poem

meteor crater, Winslow, Az.


we step out to the observation deck
and look across it's expanse,
a lateral vertigo takes hold, where
you're afraid you'll fall to the other side,
'it happened at the earth's beginnings',
you know they're not lying, the ancient dust
covered by eons of red iron oxide
is quiet as the Buddha attempted,
a child wondering about Sunday School lessons
is clutching the rail, prepared to leap
from this end to the opposite
as he jumps up and down, prepared to fall,
his faith leaks out his pants leg,
just like coins through a hole in his pocket
rattling across the man made floor