High on the Escarpment

Roberta Shellum Dohse

February 18, 2024

High on the escarpment far in the west

Long shadows stretch ‘neath the sun’s early rise,

Long shadows chase ‘cross the high vast plain

Where nothing breaks the horizon, not even a tree

To impede my vision as I drive further west.

Not a tree, no homes, no towns to be seen,

Only fences and gates, tall metal gates,

With name after name stretched over the top saying 

All this is Mine, look as far as you can,  

I have claimed it all and it is Mine. 

I wonder at this need to close in space, 

How much is lost as we shut ourselves off 

From the freedom and music to move as the wind,

The wind that scours, whistles and moans

And drives exhilaration into the souls that know

How it must have been to be here before, 

One with the bounteous lushness of life, 

Wild prancing ponies, buffalo

Tall prairie grasses, coyote, and crow 

And through all the swirling eddies of change 

The pulse of the land continues to beat 

Endless fences and gates and long dusty drives

Trailing off into nowhere cannot bury or drown 

The music I hear as the sun dresses the land,

This high escarpment, in a gown of light.

Roberta Shellum Dohse hails primarily from California. After living on a farm in northern Minnesota and in Oregon, she moved to Texas in 1980, attended law school, and has practiced law in Corpus Christi since 1997. Formerly a flight instructor and a college professor, she has always loved to write.