This being July, I’m offering section 1 of a three-part poem titled “Colorado,” which I wrote in pieces during the early 1980s, when I spent a fair amount of time out west. I later combined the individual poems because together they made a stronger composition.—PM

Colorado

1.

Heat flashes over the High Plains,

Heat lightning over the dark prairie,

Hot clouds sparking,

Bumping above the sweet grass —

Heat-light, spur-shine,

Skylight, bright-pulse, street lamp.

July-light flicking off the Front Range,

White lines in a Denver night.

.

—Paul Marion (c) 2010