#136 / 2010 Spring: Sedona poem

Meeting Gary Every

#136

after publishing Gary

for ten years

we arrive in his

effluent habitat

the red rocks of Arizona

he identifies me by

a split twig figurine

on my ear representing

the Archaic period

we visit his vault

where he archives

magazines eager

to feature his byline

we find a cache of

Beatlick News on

the Paleozoic layer of stacks.

he guides us away from

the gaucherie of the

commercial zone

onto the West Fork off

Oak Creek Canyon

where he tweaks

the nomenclature

of flora and fauna

the yellow tanager

bobolink, red crested woodpecker

he introduces us to

a poet and director of the

Alzheimer’s poetry project

who recalls meeting us

twelve years previous

while on a spoken word tour

together we ransack our

memory to recreate the event

the beauty of Sedona

is dominated by

the prosperous

the work force lives

in affordable outliers

after an extended

commingling of

literary and historical anecdotes

Gary returns to his

Vishnu basement rock cellar

we celebrate our

connectedness

and hang on to his

every word

JOE SPEER

LAS CRUCES, NM