2011 Issue - Santa Fe Community College

Magnitude 5.4
by Karla Linn Merrifield
This is the fault line:
five words
where I falter
and fall
into the Mojave Desert
of thoughtlessness.
One misstep, one slip.
Canyon floor brings me
to a halt, sharp-stoned
and searing, to the lip
of the boneyard.
Monzograntitic gravel grinds
into knees and palms.
Its dun-colored, coarse graters
bloody the edge of my imagination.
I am face down,
spitting dust, spooked
by the empty eyes,
non compos mentis.
The San Andreas shifts.
The Earth underfoot comes
alive; it quakes
with enough desire for my flesh
to kill me.
Santa Fe Literary Review 87