Glass in-hand,
we toast the dark morning’s
thunder and lightning
to the afternoon rumble
of another trace
from gray skies.
We have grown older
waiting—wishing, hoping,
praying to any god to hear—
for this time of year
when it might rain.
Glass in-hand,
we toast the dark morning’s
thunder and lightning
to the afternoon rumble
of another trace
from gray skies.
We have grown older
waiting—wishing, hoping,
praying to any god to hear—
for this time of year
when it might rain.
When it rains, all the trees are leafless
women dead or dying, chests bared
to low gray skies, canyons running full
between limbs and hardened breasts, crying
helplessly with hope, with a taste for life.
And we join them, eyes cast upwards
to bare our thirsty flesh to gods returned
from far diversions, drink until the dust
runs off to settle with the mud.
We will sigh, rest easy for a moment—
count ourselves among the blessed
survivors, plod along with the better-natured.
We track circles on the same ground
through brush and granite rock,
over mountains and down canyons
patched with spooky skeletons
of trees, broken limbs at their feet.
Last year’s blond and brittle feed
folds into dust under foot, under wheel
into decent firebreaks swirling around us
as we check springs and clean water troughs
measured with our eye. We carry hay,
fat cows come running six to the bale
once a week, fresh calves knocking
at the door of a new and wobbly world—
waiting to inhale one hundred degree heat.
Too soon to rain, we plod like cows
in dusty circles, all soft trails
lead to water and shade, or to the hum
of solar pumps in abandoned wells.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged August, broken limbs, Calves, cows, Drought, granite rock, Greasy Creek, Hay, photographs, poetry, rain, water, weather
Dry hills soft, come dusk
before a promised chance
of rain, blond fuzz
of empty-headed grasses
teased by gusts
beg to embrace me,
to become lost
in the folds of canyons
and draws, absorbed
as someday I will be.
Dark breezes stir the senses
with anticipation,
transform baked clay
to breathing slopes
of warm flesh
and I am comforted—
home at last,
a chance for peace.
Dry grasses, weeds and wildflower leaves
turned brittle, blond and hollow-stemmed,
past help or hoping for a storm as we,
when the sky went gray for days: clouds
stacked, thunder clapped in the backcountry,
spilling little drops erasing tracks in dust
with damp, new air to breathe. Every creature
prayed—out of habit more than necessity,
to all our different gods—a great wanting
on the breeze, just to see it rain. Like true
love at the core of things, it came in sheets
of ecstasy—that full feeling of feeling good.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, rain, red sky, weekly-photo-challenge
She could have stayed
longer, spent the night
pelting the roof,
roaring like a river
over boulders, flashing
foothill silhouettes
to cracks of thunder
like in the old days.
wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/blur/
It was good to see her,
visiting like a sister
forty days late
with much on her mind.
Never aging and beautiful,
she spent the afternoon
outside in the gray—
left a rainbow behind.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, rain, rainbow, Sulphur Peak
Never really green with grass,
the south slopes tried to hide the clay,
standing naked in underwear
these past three years. Too late for rain,
precursor clouds let their shadows run
up canyon walls on gusts that stir
our dry flesh, that lift the hair—
each excited follicle reaching
to dance with the thought of rain.
Dawn’s soft light steaming,
rain’s last embrace still clinging,
love spent overnight.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged dawn, Drought, Dry Creek, rain, weather, weekly-photo-challenge