Since Cattle Ranches

 

Approaching the Tehachapi Range

The broad flat plains change into

Undulating mounds and shadowed folds

Of olive-green velvet.

 

An Indian spirit on horseback rides past

Trees clustered into shallow ravines on

Hillsides, and he rides over eroded ridges

Of pink sandstone,

 

Dotted with black-dry sage; he rides

Into the rage of a storm-cloud mantle

Covering the Tehachapi Range.

(© 2001 Connie S. Tettenborn)