Stop        Go       On the road

	    into town

out of town, sits


Horseshoe		            Horseshoe Bend, King Bend

Bend			            Navajo Sandstone against

Overlook		                    de-silted green
and Colorado stripped back

	    from red-brown mudflow

A mile over more slickrock and sand

pools in late morning skin-

	    piercing sun       Car park

to cliff-edge, an ultra-violet voyage
and then a sighting of the wild river

	    before she vanishes again

Holidayers gambol, hover at the edge
of accelerating waters       A pair

	    with parasols wander the ledge

pointing to B-grade sci-fi slime green depths 
and shelf-borne sage-green sedge

	    The flock surround the astonishing

meander, pay no mind 
to the moment       eons from now
erosion			    	    when the flow will laser
through meander wall

and the oxbow lake will stand

	    will dry, a diminishing organ cut off

from the trunk, sliding
inexorably into sun-beaten earth

	    sun-soaked air

as the river straightens her course
yokes the landscape to speed