i went to joshua tree the nightfall never so clear
on its points thought I could drop my head back
enough to see my pretending cradled in orion’s belt
cupped in big dipper enough for me to drink
exhaled inhaled my own nebula
i don’t know where god is but
i believed in you not like a god
just a dust road still traceable
but the stars stole the map right out of my mouth
Crystal A.C. Salas is a Chicanx poet, essayist, educator, and community organizer. Her work has appeared in [PANK] Magazine, PCC Inscape, Chaparral Poetry, The Acentos Review, and others. She lives in Los Angeles where she writes about community landscapes of grief, remembrance, memorialized and un-memorialized spaces. She is currently completing her M.F.A. at UC Riverside and is [accidentally] working on two manuscripts.