( Death Valley, California, 2005)
After centuries,
she made her recent
appearance here – where rocks became
ravenous for color.
Blue
and lavender
leaves. gold and coral
flowers. A netting
of vines
that captured
striped and speckled wings.
Everything bloomed.
The silence
deep and low, an
inflective why.
Beforehand,
she wrung the sky
with cold pressure
causing
rain to fall for
thousands of hours.
Squirrel and
rabbit, lizard and snake
took refuge
underground. The catacombs
echoed songs of
bone and ash; all travelers
through the
desert’s house –-
its heat and dust
flint and tinder,
lightning and salt.
Yet, some beautiful god
once carved her
face from stone
soaking in the clearest
water. A fertile look
that shadowed the
land
before more storms
came – filling
her features with
sand.
The sorrow of want,
the ambiguity
of her return.
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