Gambelia Wislizenii basking on a rock near the Alvord Desert.
At the Bomb Testing Site
By William Stafford
.
At noon in the desert a panting lizard
waited for history, its elbows tense,
watching the curve of a particular road
as if something might happen.
.
It was looking at something farther off
than people could see, an important scene
acted in stone for little selves
at the flute end of consequences.
.
There was just a continent without much on it
under a sky that never cared less.
Ready for a change, the elbows waited.
The hands gripped hard on the desert.
…
…
William Stafford, “At the Bomb Testing Site” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.