The Badlands, South Dakota

FIELDWORK

"If you have been to The Badlands
You have not been to the Moon.
You have orbited your tongue
          and explored its dark side––

You are visiting soft
Earth for the first time.
You are watching clouds
Snap shut like a jaw
Biting the lip of mountain
        you just climbed.

And like a pebble budding legs,
You are speechless…
You are taking one
Giant leap and landing
A kiss on the cracked
Lips of the lonesome
        and hungry world."

                     - Selected Poems from Gary Joseph Cohen