I saw everything was tinctured by giddy hope and fear. Around this corner you'll see a treasure, or a terror.
Walked on and on. Into this sunny landscape I'd seen plenty of on screen but here it was in my face. Kept walking into it completely aware of every person I passed, staring and taking in such horrors and delights. But what were the smells? Very few. The sun had baked them away. Dry pavement, lush grass on campus en route to the park. A plain faded brown baseball cap, sunglasses. Earbuds, pulsating tunes. Into the sun, opening up into a view, arid enough, and distant. But then into a weaving crisscrossing path through the hugest most diverse desert trees, and a shocking edge: the cliff. Or a mere step, ten feet or so of a steep-ass slope down to the true drop. Blinding heat now. Glorious revenge, silent and technically non-threatening, of nature; mutely terrifying, as in you know what it can do. Helps to be reminded.
thriving overheated life, arid and still
