DEVILS TOWER Standing Witness Devils Tower National Monument: A History

Rock solid columns rise above the walking trail,
surreal against the sky.
I rest my cheek
on a fallen column, lichen-covered
and close. I smell the heat,
feel the promise, taste the solitude,
imagine what the Tower might tell me
if only she could.

In a small clearing
stands a charred pine trunk, remnant
of fire.
The burned tree alters,
becomes a woman of Africa,
her wrapped head bowed over her unborn child.
She prays here
in this Wyoming forest
amid prayer ties of black, red, yellow,
white.

Rock solid columns.
Rock found only here, Montana,
Africa. Around the world and back
on the secrets of stone.