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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