Unraveled Cassette

by an’ya and Michael Dylan Welch

First published in Frogpond 25:3, Fall 2002, page 36. Written 1–3 June 2001 by email. We’ve all seen cassette tapes unravelled along the side of a road. How do these things happen? Now that cassettes are obsolete, I guess we won’t be seeing this oddity much any more.

long drought—

the juniper bough

lowers its cones an’ya

soil in the cactus pot

sticks to my fingers Michael

mirage—

the diviner points

his hazel rod an’ya

shifting dune . . .

two roadrunners shaded

by a dead manzanita Michael

solstice heat wave—

the cassette tape unravels an’ya

Nevada river bed—

across fossilized sand

a pattern of ripples Michael