Scott Waters is a poet and songwriter living in Oakland, California.  He has an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  Scott has published previously in The Santa Clara Review, The Pangolin Review, A New Ulster, Amethyst, Ink in Thirds, NatureWriting, and Verse-Virtual.

Ruins

In 1990
on my way to a new life
in California
 
I stopped in New Mexico
to investigate
a point on the map
marked "Ruins"
 
steering my Budget rental truck
off the freeway ramp
and down a two-lane highway
toward cobalt mountains
 
I had a sensation of vanishing
along with my cat
into a landscape of pastel mesas
parched yucca
and quavering sky.
 
~
 
The ruins weren't much:
a low wall of stones on a hill
and a jumbled outline
of what used to be rooms
in a dwelling
 
with a 360 degree view
of whatever might
be approaching
across the desert
 
friend or foe.
 
~
 
My cat is long gone
and so are
those ancient humans
and their customs
 
but I am still here
 
gazing out
from the ruins
of this poem.

At Thirteen

a girl no longer is a girl
a boy not quite a boy
 
the friend you played with yesterday
at schoolyard, park or beach
becomes a magnet
pulling eyes from sockets
 
blood from brains
 
and after that your heart
will teeter on a windy cliff
 
never knowing
when it will go over.