Climb
A Poem by Lauren McKinnon
My love and I met in Moab. The summer I ran away. We climbed a crack in a canyon for our first date. Grated palms on sandstone till blood clotted brown. My cheek pressed on rock a thousand stories vibrated. The smell of canyons cooling in the night reminded me of a grief hidden in my body. Ancient and slow. I wanted to carve out my heart and leave it there, alone on the edge of a cliff. Let the ravens pick apart red strips till sand and organs looked the same, and never again feel alone in my silence. We tangled ourselves on the edge, fins of rock darkening in the night. Our bodies buzzed, inches from a forty-foot fall. In the morning, cotton wood trees shook and seed fluff caught in my hair, You rubbed the dirt off my cheek, said I grew from the desert.
Lauren McKinnon (she/her) is an award-winner writer and artist. Journalist for the University of Utah, Lauren spends much of her time writing nonfiction, through her poetry has won first place in Sink Hollow’s 2023 Creative Writing Contest. Lauren earned her bachelor’s and masters degree in creative writing from Utah State University where she taught English and worked as the composition director’s assistant. Editor for the online literary journal, The Turning Leaf, Lauren enjoys bringing to light new writers. When she’s not writing or painting, Lauren is road tripping to the desert with her toddler.
