A Tombstone of Sand

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

I am the heir of the river Blue, daughter of a noble bloodline. My family has inhabited these lands before the days of fire, when the river existed three kilometers to the north. Lava flowed down the river bottom, but we escaped. Time, and water, and wind gnawed at the surrounding mountains, and my ancestors watched generation after generation as those mountains washed by. A grain of sand at a time. Peace reigned for Millenia.