No telling how the Sierras leak
along the granite cracks and fissures
over ranges and across canyons
to make a seep and fill a trough
for all nearby – button willow, buckeye.
Along as many imperfections as
cracked glass, cobwebbed beneath
this thin coat of clay cut by seams
of shale. Old timers claimed it took
a year for snow to recharge springs
gone dry, a slowing leak downhill
in droughts. Some move around,
pool up or down canyon with the shifting
of the fractured while others become camp
sites, wild tracks in mud, gossip rocks
carved with stone, places with names
for centuries, stories come and gone
where cattle drink, make their homes.
drycrikjournal 