Vox Populi
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Zachary Guadamour: Ciénaca
I ride lazy atop the mule Toby
as he unravels a deer path we follow
not knowing where we head
the morning crisp in the cloudless warming sky
A year with plenty of rain
I watch green/golden grass shimmer on hillsides
oak and mesquite meander along a creek bed
gray/green juniper smile on ravine sides
We come to a huge alamo
overgrown with grapes
swallows and wrens in full song
a blue jay scolds us for the intrusion
Toby drinks his fill of water
collected on a hollowed out boulder
then grazes while I lean against the tree
smile at the perfect wonder of the day
Copyright 2021 Zachary Guadamour
Zachary Guadamour, originally from Columbia, currently lives and writes in Agua Prieta, Sonora.
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Ed. note: A ciénega (also spelled ciénaga or ciénaca) is a type of wetland commonly found in the American Southwest and western Mexico. Ciénagas are alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes that often occupy nearly the entire widths of valley bottoms.
Cienega Chica Xochimilco, México
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I’m there. I remember riding my friend’s burro in the Arroyo Seco near Pasadena
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