“Mojave Rising”

By: Tierney Chapman

Raving across listless sands

grinding to the grimy beat o

f the bass canyons,

I am

a fire dancer burning

through the red haze

I am

a lizard king,

pulsating

idle grains

pushing up beige

to the red, yellow blue

skies, that swim flat above the mountain head

I—the dust devil of electric beats

recharge the clay mountains

raising them up,

to the world

with-out-end,

—I am

the desert night,

headbanging

to the cadance

of the half-moon,

dancing with violet bobcats

in peyote dreams

I live in black winds

vibrating succulents

with heavy drums,

celebrating in the fluorescence

of the rising sun,

I am the melody

rolling from peace pipes

smoking indigo children,

inhaling

colors of sound

my bones

rest inside a clay mound

thunder-stepping

to the beat,

at the base

of the bass canyons feet,

I am

the remedy

to the wasteland

of desert wallflowers.

---

Tierney Chapman is an emerging Appalachian poet, and a winner of the 2023 West Virginia Writers Competition. 

A former paralegal for the Legal Aid of WV, Tierney holds degrees in both Paralegal Studies and English/

Professional Writing. She currently takes classes with the Gotham Writers Workshop of NYC, and is an author

of a growing social media page, Poetry For Us