Sussurus

I want to fire off
into an ancient canyon
deep and unstirring
only to wait above the hollowed space
and answer to the report
with your name.

your name,
peeling like a fractured doll
waging war with the silent slopes
of eons old rock
and then louder, say it louder
answering that old echo of a fired gun
over and over.

then leave
your name to rot
with struck down birds
and dismantled trees and
unbuilt homes.

leave your name to be weakened
by the silence it meets
and the buried bullet
and the amount of time
that absorbed enough earth to build
miles of rock between me
and the canyon floor