“Taos, New Mexico 1989” by Dan Grossman

Public Domain image

Taos, New Mexico, 1989

The “strong tribal drum”*  was still beating 50 years after
Robinson Jeffers
dissed the Taos tourists in his verse.  That summer
I was working for a tour group
when we went to see the Taos Pueblo corn dance.
One of the couples was having an adulterous affair.

While they fucked in their canvas tent, I cooked their meals
and read Jeffers’ Selected Poems
on my breaks. Jeffers himself philandered behind his wife’s back
at Taos in between penning verses
that prophesied the end of civilization. I doubt the touring couple

shared the poet’s misanthropic disposition (he being a contractor
and she a former model). 
Jeffers would have no doubt disdained their shallowness
and lack of intellectual curiosity. 
But similar afternoon trysts surely got his rocks off. 

*taken from Jeffers’ poem “New Mexican Mountain”