The Colorado River

Long, silent leagues of ever-shifting sand, White-hot and shimmering to the distant hills Where wheeling slow the whirlwind dips and fills, Or beckons like some shadowy, giant hand. Gray wisps of greenwood and mesquite that stand In withered patches like an old man’s beard, Ragged and grizzled: nearer, dark and weird, The river slips along the cringing land, Swift to possess and loath to give again. Foam-ribbed and sullen, staggering with the weight Of forests spoiled, he takes his price in full, Stern toll for every drop to land and men; In witness there--Poor pawn of love or hate!-- Caught in a drift a grinning human skull.