I came to see the stars shine
Like silver-headed pins in the blue-black sky
I came to see rocks
Carved from the immense and everlasting
erosion
Of time and wind and water
Colored red
By the oxidation of the iron at its core
I came to see cliffs of sandstone
Rearing high into the cloudless blue sky
I came to see a huge chasm
Created through the herculean upheaval
Of chunks of moving earth
And tens of thousands of gallons
Of pure, glacial-cold water
But what I found
Was sparse blackened grass
Edging a meadow
Colored a washed-out celery green
Splintered and broken gray-barked trees
Laying amidst a plethora
Of battered and broken branches
And smelly stagnant water
Over which a wreath
Of buzzing no-see-ums
Endlessly circles
This was to have been
My chance
To be more
Than I was, am or ever could be
But as is the fate
Of all mankind……….I failed