Canyon

By Chloe Coventry

We did or didn’t know the name of the yellow wildflower 
on a deep hot mountain trail late in May
not sundrop or bush poppy or yarrow 
but tall & firm-stalked with tender golden pods 
petals splayed languidly open and a lush scent 
of melted candy rising out of them in the heat
We sniffed them out together like eager dogs 
and lay amongst them rolling ourselves 
in that smell and eyes closed in unison soaked 
with late sunlight & the lavish warm whiffs 
thrilling and breathing deeply and then more deeply
Two people at the end or beginning of something really big

Chloe Coventry is a writer, violinist, and ethnomusicologist living with her partner and children in the foothills above Los Angeles.