Tag Archives: rain

RAINY SEASON

 

20151015-IMG_5060-2

 

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.

 

20151015-IMG_5060

 

BETTER-NATURED

 

20150806-IMG_0399

 

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.

 

CIRCLES IN AUGUST

 

IMG_0456

 

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.

 

CHANCE

 

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.

 

GOOD RAIN

 

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.

 

VAPOR

 

March 14, 2014

 

Awakened slowly,
drinking promises of rain
with people on time.

 

 

“photo_challenge/early-bird”/

OLD DAYS

 

IMG_4188

 

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/

 

SHE

 

IMG_4167

 

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.

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

IMG_3953

 

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.

 

AFTER RAIN 2

 

IMG_2644

 

Dawn’s soft light steaming,
rain’s last embrace still clinging,
love spent overnight.

 

 

photo_challenge/ephemeral