MY UTAH HEART

By Gray


Photography: Matt Morgan, VisitUtah.com

My heart is a sugar beet.
My heart is an elephanthead blossoming in thin air.
My heart is a mountain that can’t remember its name.
My heart is a desert plateau chiseled by ice.
My heart is a nook where the water starts.
My heart is a hoodoo returning itself to the landscape.
My heart is a thirsty lake gathering itself.
My heart is a locomotive throwing long whistles into cold canyons.
My heart is a katydid dance and a seagull appetite.
My heart is a feast for wolves and crows.
My heart is a handcart wheel.
My heart is stolen from another’s chest.
My heart is a faraway girl and a local boy.
My heart is held together by starstrands and patches of sky.

Gray, a writer from Salt Lake City, earned an English degree from the University of Utah and a master’s in strategic communication from Westminster College. Gray’s work has appeared in Unshod Quills, Drunk In a Midnight Choir, enormous rooms, Button Poetry, and Write About Now, among others. Gray received second place in the 2020 Utah Original Writing Competition for poetry.