plain

She loves him the way plains love to confuse travelers from the west. Mountain ranges provide direction, a place of origin, protection. The plains displace, disorient, blow right through bare bones. People get lost in open spaces, but people also lose their way in the canyons and dense forests of mountains. To get lost means one has the potential to be found. To find something increases the risk of losing something. And so she continues to love him while simultaneously searching for what isn't there, the map of her life thrown out the window countless miles back.