Winner, What’s Worth Preserving Category, 2015 Summer Fun Write Stuff Contest
By Stephanie Bradley
What’s worth preserving we no longer see
Except as images tucked in our memory.
Hills and ranges, stirring Sonoran spans,
Are Scottsdalized into boxes, stacked in a Lego-land.
Where rugged and endless vistas thrilled the psyche
Fencing and asphalt now accommodate Nikes.
Herds of horses that ran with the wind
Are fading into “what once had been.”
Ghosts of cowboys, dusty and dry,
Haunt the bajadas and wonder why
The land, so vast, so vulnerable and free|
Has not been tended more thoughtfully.
The ancient Hohokam have shed their tears
Worn by changes over so many years.
Gone are rustic spots to quench the thirst
It matters not who was there first.
Is no one guilty? Or are we all to blame?
Excusing our nature that makes change our aim.
Still there should be some things to protect and revere
So that those who come after can touch and be near:
A stand of saguaros, climbing the McDowells,
A bobcat’s nonchalance, as the wind howls;
Swaths of wildflowers in a magical spring
All the marvels and miracles the desert brings.
What you read here sounds a cynic’s plea
To leave some desert as it was meant to be.
Stephanie Bradley is a resident of Cave and a frequent contributor to The Peak. She is a past winner of The Peak’s Write Stuff Contest.
September 6, 2015
Poignant, true and regrettable facts in this poem. Since 1991 I’ve watched the north desert decline in beauty as developers bury it. And yes, I’m part of the problem. we bought an acre in Carefree in a subdivision and built our custom home on it which we dearly loved until age made us uproot to a CCRC in N. CA. I enjoy everything Stephanie writes and applaud her championing the beautiful desert.