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there are stories - horror stories!
and if the old woman were still alive
i would never have made the pilgrimage
to her Ghost Ranch residence
Bill Sozi
says she was anything but menacing
of course he is Native American
and a lunatic to boot
a painter of abstract buffalo
who thinks his head is on fire
and in the Southwest
no one pays attention to an artist
who isn't Gorman slick
or Di Grazia cute
no one
except perhaps Georgia O'Keeffe
at least
that's what i chose to believe
as i circled her remote adobe
a sneak thief window-peeking
stealing looks
through cracks in the blinds
a pair of red slippers -
the glimpse of an empty easel -
shadows on a stripped bed
and out back a ramada
black as a Penitente cross
against a sheet of high twilight sky
the enclosed garden overgrown
hollyhocks
broken down and gone to seed
brown patio walls hung
with the bleached bones
she had so lovingly rendered
and the view
i took that in too
filling my eyes
with the distant line of the Pedernal
floating above a sculpture
of salmon-colored hills
all the while
afraid that someone would come
and catch me making off
with this priceless ambience
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