I am asked what it is like

to have grown up in Colorado

for apparently it is rare

to meet somebody from here

born beneath these wide skies

it takes me some time to answer

for I have known nothing

other than being from here

but here has changed so much

I am so young, yet I have seen

the western vastness filled in

I remember going to the airport

when I was a child in the backseat

how from Boulder to the terminal

there was next to nothing

other than the soft roll of hills

tall yellow grass and blue sky

the mountains stark

and snowcapped

in the rear view mirror

I remember thinking

these grasslands

must go on forever

now it’s all houses and highways

the endlessness I imagined

was cut up and built on and sold

what was the question again?

what it feels like to grow up here

what it feels like to be from here

the biggest tree I knew

fell a decade ago

the swing in the woods

we used to walk to

rotted into mulch

the mountains still stand

so stark and holy but bare

and the plains are filled in

anywhere that can be bought

has been bought

I remember ever white mountains 

I remember the open spaces

the edgeless grasses

rippling like living water in wind

Alexander Shalom Joseph is an award-winning poet, writer and playwright from Gilpin County, and is the author of seven published books. You can find his work and more information about him at  alexandershalomjoseph.com.