ashtray valley

i make my home in metropolitan phoenix, arizona/also known as the valley of the sun

one day i flew home from boulder, colorado,/which was lush and green/and it struck me that by comparison/phoenix was like the bottom of an ashtray

you will find green on some golf courses/and some lushly maintained gated communities/but the mountains trap the pollution in a sprawling shallow bowl/and a hike up piestewa peak will reveal/the thin soup we breathe

i love my valley anyway/and my own hair has turned quite gray/and it does not make me too blue/to think that I’m an ashtray too