COVER OF COLOR

Gray canyon rain,

café au lait rivulets

overfill vernal pools

spreading to the creek

just begun to run

at the end of December.

She stayed overnight

and all day, lingering

to leave us extra rain,

as if we were old lovers

trying to give the past

a second chance—

she offers nourishment

to thirsty earth, bare slopes

a cover of color come spring:

a team of sunlit Wood Ducks

at the edges of water pooled

grazing with horses.