Iowa Writes

ANN STRUTHERS
The End of the Day


To watch the sun set at Wadi Rum
we ride across the desert on benches
in the back of the 1950s pickup,
past the petroglyphs on the red rocks
to the outcroppings sanded smooth by eons
of time with sand in their teeth.
The princes in their sheepskin cloaks
breast the January wind from their new jeep.
Sun diffuses from marigold to pale peach,
Persimmon, coral, cerise, sheen of crimson.
Clouds’ edges lit with gold
Like Bible pages, finally suffusing
Into cool mist, fine as silk.

Lawrence and the Arab army
camped here, exhausted but exhilarated
because the Turks at Aqaba thought
no one could cross the fierce wilderness
behind them. Camels ridden hard,
men ridden harder by their fantastic hopes,
tomorrow their triumph. I can still feel
it here where Lawrence sat, knowing the sun
that evening set on an age, and he must have shivered
as I do, as he thought of what was to come.

About Iowa Writes

Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette.

In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu


ANN STRUTHERS

Ann Struthers grew up on an Iowa farm but she has always been afflicted with wanderlust and that most pernicious disease, writing. Some strange genie has called her to the Middle East and to Sri Lanka, two of the world's hot spots. While on a Fulbright Fellowship in the Middle East she began "The End of the Day."  She publishes in numerous journals and has two collections and two chapbooks. "The End of the Day" first appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of The Iowa Review.

This page was first displayed
on February 02, 2007

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