Cathedral Gorge
Dianne Turgeon Richardson
We played hide and seek among
the ancient sandstone arches. Twenty
college kids spilling over peaks
and crevices, drunk on isolation. Beer
in one hand, flashlight in the other,
we ran, we scraped knees, we bruised
knuckles. We piled like river rocks
into the best hiding places in groups of two,
three, seven, swallowing our laughter
until we cried. We were new to the desert,
the sagebrush, sandstone towers,
legions of stars in the black Nevada night.
DIANNE TURGEON RICHARDSON recently completed her MFA at the University of Central Florida, where she served as a managing editor for The Florida Review. Her poetry has appeared in Zaum, Poem, and the anthology A Sense of the Midlands (from Muddy Ford Press), and will soon appear in the Cooweescowee. She was a finalist in Jasper‘s inaugural One Book, One Poem contest. She lives with her husband and two mutts in Orlando, Florida.