- Chell Navarro
Driving into Cimarron Canyon
Updated: Apr 10, 2019
On my 10th hour driving to Taos
I finally enter the best part of the trip--
driving into Cimarron Canyon at sunset.
What they say about the colors
of New Mexico are true. The pinks, purples, blues...
O'Keeffe recognized the pallet
and she made her own paint to portray.
The sky was a pink mist raining down stars
the size of dust motes
I felt a buzz on my skin electric
listening to a Fleetwood Mac song
Crystal, the same song I have sung for 40 years,
sang to my first granddaughter, a lullaby
to myself when I felt too alone. A song of want,
a song of completion.
It never occurred to me, this song, an augury
that I came to divine-- I had arrived to own myself
to cast a look back to her in a mirror, that 17 year-old
who didn't know anything but love as out of reach,
that 17 year-old buried deep inside. I played the song
again and again
as the sun set I sang out loud driving into the west,
on the horizon the canyon.