Jenn Habel

"Salt Lake"

This is a cauldron
that takes and takes
and lets nothing go.

This is landlocked,
crystallized.
It has no balance

of its own. This is
mercurial and needy
and half-mad

with unchecked
centripetal force.
It may dilute,

it may receive,
but joins nothing
and will never

be made clean.
When you come,
as you sometimes will,

don't stay too long,
leave with empty
hands-there are no

souvenirs. Be glad
it burns your tongue.
Very little lives here.