By Nick Conrad
the Paria River
The unmeasured moment suddenly
a chasm, a slot canyon, deep, narrow,
down which I raced, a river of tumult,
a flash flood careening off wave worn walls
bouncing into and out of dead-end
box canyons spilling storm driven through narrows,
a whoosh of air signaling my approach
as I churned on through each too snug slit,
each slim egress, each choke point, the rock
too smooth to afford handholds and me
brimming skyward, spinning spinned spun,
a canyon roar, gravelly voiced,
that started as an echo down
from the north edge of Bryce, a murmur
spilling out of Little Henderson,
a gurgle from Water Canyon, as mumblings
from once dry washes that soon were not just
mere meanders, but, a babbling made louder
by Tropic Ditch Falls, by the waters
from Mossy Cave and Glory Cove,
that rambled on out of Cope Canyon,
banking through Amphitheater
and Cottonwood Canyon, joining
in time Little Creek, the Henrievile--
itself a shout down from Shurtz Brush Creek,
from Paria Hollow--a surging
cacophony from Wildcat Wash on
past the Kodachrome Cliffs, joining
Rockspring Creek’s garrulous churning
waters tumbling on down past Deer Creek
Canyon; by Deer Range, a river
guarded by the Toadstool Hoodoos;
the bone dry flats of Telegraph Wash
as if shattered anew its splintered
passes soon rain drenched washes dawdling
at first but soon dwindled down straights,
claustrophobic channels of swirl
and eddy, of riotous confluences
such as Buckskin Gulch where petroglyphs
told tales of hunters and the hunted,
of closed canyons gaping like knife wounds
to the east, of the Twin Buttes to the south,
of dinosaur claw tracks exposed
on a distant plateau, of spent cliff
flotsam stranded on Bone Yard’s slope,
of Chihuly-like wave canyons,
of Top Rock Arch eyeing The Alcoves
etched multitudes as I screamed past,
flooding the broadening canyon,
rumbling on toward Lee’s Ferry; there,
a muddy sluice, riffle quickened.
By Nankoweap, a fury long spent.
Nick Conrad’s poems have appeared recently in Acumen (U.K.), Blueline, Cloudbank, North Dakota Quarterly, Plants and People Journal, Red Rock Review Literary Journal, Stand (U.K.), and Third Wednesday. A poem of his was included in Magma Poetry Review’s (U.K.) special Anthropocene issue. His first book, Lake Erie Blues (Urban Farmhouse), appeared in 2020. His podcast for All Write in Sin City aired in 2021.