On August 9, 2011, Warren Jeffs was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. This resulted in the eventual breakup of America’s largest Polygamist Town: Colorado City/Hildale. Hundreds of women and younger men, abused and neglected for years are only just now beginning to heal from their harrowing past. Now at last, the town has hope for a brighter future. 

The wind blows—over the mountains;

red rock desert air

tuneless; heedless; cruel nature

nurturing the things that grow

dry, deserted and dark as dirt.

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The wind blows—across the shrub grass.

Summer prairie wind

swishing laundry on the line

where women washing hang the clothes

dry, deserted, above the dirt.

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The night breath shifts a tumbleweed

through the streets tonight and past

a giant fortress house.

A man is speaking to a room of girls

who nod, obediently and file out

to bed—alone, surrounded by their family—

and so alone

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But all the streets lie empty now

with no one driving, no one walking.

Bee hive houses sit alone,

their doors and windows square shaped voids.

The meeting shed is closed,

the pavement grown in grass.

And as the setting sun lights the final peak

the desert wind blows cool—at last—

and free.

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