You gaze over the canyon, shimmering in vermilion and emerald under a sea-blue sky. More magnificent than you ever imagined.

Turning, arm raised, you seek the tilt for a perfect image. You step back.

Rescued from the rocks below, screen shattered in starburst, your phone froze your smile for eternity.

Elizabeth Bird is a retired Anthropology Professor, whose essays appear in Under the Sun (Readers’ Choice Award 2022), Tangled Locks, Biostories, Streetlight, Ariel’s Dream, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She placed third in the 2022 International Human Rights Art Festival’s Creators of Justice Literary Awards.