September 14th, 2014 - Elizabeth S. Gunn

it caught my eye -

the crooked no exit

sign half-guarding

an empty desert

road whose narrowing

lanes reached

the horizon as one.

I snapped a photo

that captured less

than a percent

of the ever reaching

burnt-orange soil

and scattered rocks

and clever mountains

whose swoops

and hollows

measured time

in a universe-sized

drumbeat.

As the lanes

merged at mountains’

swallowing shadows,

I wondered, who

could be out there

still without exit,

just looking on?

Elizabeth S. Gunn serves as the Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Business at Nevada State University. She writes poetry and fiction in Henderson, Nevada, where she and her wife live with their three rescue pups in the endless Mojave Desert.

They adopted their pup Moose three years ago through Vegas Roots Rescue, a local and earnest charity for which she is grateful if you'd like to learn more about the organization!