On a cold winter day, with a dusting of snow on the ground, I stand alone overlooking Chaco Canyon, an enormous fossil from a mystifying civilization, which, as I squint, could also be the design for a future spaceship. I stare past its ancient roads that disappear into the vast landscape and perceive a mushroom-shaped whirlwind that appears to touch down, spreading spores of a past or future era.

Mounted in white wood frame behind glass