Painting by Pamela Heater
Will and Testament
The mountains cough smoke
and bleed fire,
leaving behind obsidian
as their fever coolsto this stone black as night
and still as the stars
after the dusk has had
its way with them—stone chipped into tools
by the ancient ones who
left behind a sagebrush sandal
ten thousand years ago.Turn around: look back—
Can you see the stars emerging
in the wake of your own dusk—the chips from your work
shaped into the translucent stone
of memory—the path smoothed
for those to come
by your own sandals?Can you see the trail
of beautiful fire?
