Morrow Point

Latitudes & Longitudes: An Outtakes Poem

Shelli Rottschafer

Latitudes of home
hurry from the child I
and toward the adult me. 
Both born of the same backward stroke.

This awakening, 
urges said swaddled child
below a pocked moon darkness.
Backlighted. 

There I saw,
her hands lost in silver.
Scythe’s sliver 
details stem to blade.

Sun sashayed  
in an unworldly sky  
a color that deep-ended 
to indigo.
 
My air bleeds
playing at rock bottom 
enraptured depth 
of deep-sea divers.

Latitudes & Longitudes: An Outtakes Poem is the inversion of an original poem I wrote titled “Eclipsed,” which is after Annie Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse” in The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New. NY: Harper Collins, 2016. Pp 1-24. The concept of an out-takes-poem is gleaned by Maya Jewell Zeller’s collection of poetry, out takes / glove box. Milwaukee: New American Press, 2023. An out-takes-poem works through erasure in that it takes snippets out of one poem in order to create an entirely different piece.

A precipice along Rockslide Trailhead, taken May 2025.
Photo Credit: Daniel Combs www.danielcombsphotography.com

The area is part of El Rio Grande del Norte National Monument which is threatened to being opened and exploited by Secretary Doug Burgum. Burgum’s Department of Interior plans to open Public Lands for natural resource extraction.  This poem was written in protest, #HandsOff #PublicLands

The News of the Day

Shelli Rottschafer

As we take stock,
hearts plummet.

News headlined,
trickles down.

Public lands,
no longer may these feet tread.

Cuchillo cuts
a heavy price -

pined for hope
extracted.

Left to waste
rot in these dry climes.

Only desert monsoon will break
upon these flooded gates.

Extra 
red reeds
 
our acequia, a newly eroded river edge.
El Río Pueblo whispers rapidly.

Sage-knowledge 
ripe, for the fracking.

The news of the day:
We are still here.

The News of the Day was written April 10, 2025. Inspired while hiking Rock Slide Trail and where it meets Picuris Trail. This gravel route once was the road south of Taos that led over to the west-mesa.  At the bottom of the canyon someone has repeatedly dumped trash like old appliances.  Also, one of these discarded items is an old newspaper metal dispenser.  Hence, the journalistic references.  It was also written in anticipation of Earth Day, and our need for community clean-ups.