The sun touches down on the south side of the mesa, engulfing the celeste sky in amaranth watercolor. I lean out my car window and immerse myself in the overwhelming petrichor, I revel in the telluric current of the wind whipping my mane of hair to and fro. My mediocre phone camera snaps a picture of the scene, never doing it justice and I return to my seat and continue my drive to the farm, where I am greeted by eight dogs, running about the land, one of which is my own. My roommate has replenished the beer that has become apart of our fridge and we sit under a commune of stars in the melanic sky. He smokes his spirit and I crush double-menthol cigarettes between my fingers, we debate government conspiracies without hushed tones and paranoid over-the-shoulder glances. Picking apart every injustice we skim in newspapers that only share bad news. With clenched fists and gritted teeth we ignite freedom fires inside but careful their growth, too much passion and unjust fury raging in the confines of our skeletons could lead to harm. We fade in and out of topics, but I find myself drawn to conversation instead of internal insecurities and reservations. It has become easy for me to wear my mangled heart where my sleeves used to be. Curtis understands every word that impulsively flies from my lips and he agrees. We swap ideas and theories, that lead me to talk about life in the only way I know how; referring to things in terms of photos or writing, my own imagination stronger than my experience with living. He shares an anecdote every now and then, always relevant to a desire I have expressed in the amount of time it takes me to light another cigarette. Curtis shares from his soul, from a place he has been and traveled and explored over and over again. He shares drifting through Colorado, North Dakota and Ohio— his experiences stronger than the overflowing chakra of desire beating hard in my chest. In my eyes he has done so many things and has experienced the organic life I wish to lead. He's onto his next adventure, a college degree. #creativenonfiction #cnf #nonfiction #literature #writing #writer #writersofig #writerscommunity #offgridstories #santafesunset (at Rowe Mesa)