‘Reverberation’, ‘Leo Season in the City’ & ‘Bright Angel’
Photographer Amir Vaughns is an artist and photographer based in New York City that brings the imagination of the human mind to life. Through his knowledge of psychology, and ever-growing skills with the camera, he’s able to produce work that is visually compelling and conceptually complex.
reverberation
Sedona stares as our group of three pulls up in a rented Malibu
at twilight. trying to find Devil’s Bridge from the wrong side
of the near-empty parking lot.
twisting and turning around
Arizona tumbleweeds and prickly pears, looking for any sign
of humans besides the newly-started drum circle near the cars.
Sedona stares at our improper
hiking shoes, our lack of water, our amazement at the martian
dreamscape we step into as we finally make it to the right path.
three visitors soon to be addicted to the traction of sneaker on red rock, the curving buttes against sunset, and the hard-pressed electric endorphins from scaling up the steep last half mile.
Sedona stares at the darkening cacti we pass as we follow the pounding heartbeat of drum back to the bottom. looking carefully for the winding trail with phone flashlights.
clicking open the Malibu beneath milky way, eyes wide at the sky as the circle disbands for the night. not yet knowing that even without the beat, the rhythm had just begun.
leo season in the city
August arrives at last, the air swimming with leo’s roar, demanding to be known in the deadheat of midday.
in July, girl moved 900 miles to be with boy. left sweaty Carolina sun in exchange for Illinois breeze. left city for cornfields and what they call another city even though it really seems like a village made of wind and bonedust.
August arrives and says “you are going to be okay
without your vegan restaurants and winding interstates.”
she knows she will survive this beast of late summer, even if left with claw marks. July lent the last sticky club floors and surfs of the summer, but if we try hard enough, maybe August won’t be quite so fulsome, so absorbing, so monotonous.
last line is from “The Kansas City Times, Missouri, August 1, 1936”
bright angel
Bright Angel is one of the most popular trails at the Grand Canyon National Park.
shoes laced, bottles filled–
three of us hiking deep down
under early fall canyon sun.
two of us glued against
the wall and away from
the edge, afraid of the fall.
one of us stopping every
hundred steps for a pic
with a slightly new angle.
one of us forgetting
anything other than
these redwall slopes.
one of us eating pb&J
at the halfway point
before the journey back up.
two of us at the overlook
beneath sandstone arch,
promising to visit again.
three of us stargazing
hours later on rimrock,
backs flat on cool stone.
watching the milky way twirl
as she adds a piece of each of us
to that grand canyon sky.
Amanda Conover is a recent MFA alum based in Peoria, IL who often explores themes such as existentialism, spirituality, and social issues. She is the Poetry Editor for Carolina Muse Literary & Arts Magazine and works in scholarly publishing. Her poetry has been published in Atlanta Review, the lickety~split, Sad Girl Diaries, the Chaffin Journal, and elsewhere.
