Hiking the Grand Canyon (A Poem)

I have dreamt about you my whole life Grand Canyon
As a child I knew,
“There’s a tear in the earth out there;
Somewhere people (and I) need to go.”
A place where folks scream ECHO!
Into a break that consumes shouts
And your answer back comes in the shade
Of peach clay and the sound of a donkey’s nay
Carrying the wide tourists up the cliff side
An easy ride on an animal’s strained hide
The day I finally climbed down into you
Wedged between your smudges of hot orange rock
And splashes of acid green cacti
I bedded in a hot tent beside lizards
And I woke (surrounded by crows) in search of the Colorado River
And at noon I stripped (swarmed by bugs)
And left my hiking boots on the shore to bake out the sweat
Set myself into your cool song
I submerged into silence
And swallowed the rushing voice of a great split
Of the distance between one thing