Riparian Zone, Sally Thomas (June 2026)

Riparian Zone
Fremont River–Torrey, Utah

Remember gray-green tamarisk shadows, grasses
Watered by a river’s lapping shallows.
Remember mule deer browsing fallen apples,
Orchards planted outside vanished cabins
Built by men who planted a society
Briefly in that crease of dry red rock
Greening in the merciless sunshine.
 
Remember: we could walk beneath those trees,
Where water glimmers in the thirsty desert.
We could see again the long dry twilight’s
Cool onset: sharpness giving way to shadow,
Long-eared mule deer, brindled in the fingering
Tree-shapes, grazing silver-seed-tipped grasses,
Fallen apples softening to water.