The drive from Rock City, New Mexico
          to the Chicarahua Forests

in Southern Arizona takes four hours
          if you don’t stop

for coffee in Silver City. Timing,
          you see, is everything.

Once upon a time, a man decided
          the best way to find copper

was to tear the mountains to dust
          so towns could be built

in the rubble, but don’t worry,
          the sign says, the reclamation

started in 1986, and who cares
          if this wound lasts

a thousand years. Look at this poor
          mining town that has since

disappeared. In Historic Silver,
          the art store boasts real copper wares

and we feel like our skin has been stripped
          from our skin. In the park, we rest

on memorial benches. I say, not a bad place
          to spread your ashes. You say,

I prefer something more dramatic than this.

 

—
Samantha Tetangco’s short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in a number of literary magazines and selected anthologies including The Sun, Gargoyle, Phoebe, Gertrude, Oklahoma Review, Stone Path Review, Vela and others.  In 2011, she earned her MFA from the University of New Mexico.  She currently teaches writing at the University of California, Merced and is serving as the Communications Officer for this year’s AWP LGBTQ Caucus.