Desert Cumulus...A Poem

 

 

Muscular cumulus

massive and strong;

white-knuckled fists

punch holes in the sky;

clenched into bloodlessness,

clenched in magnificence.

Swelling, growing

prelude to a storm,

parching life's reprieve,

prelude to a symphony

of thunder and of rain.

 

A sonora dove's soprano call;

chipmunk, pale stripe down its side,

nosing desert grit,

quick little digs

with furious paws;

stretch full length upon the ground.

Then on hind legs like a little man,

hands to chest, a peddler

dealing his wares.

 

Doves roost, sparrows fly,

palo verde bloom the last

of their yellow blooms;

doves fly, planes fly,

ants crawl, flies buzz;

slabs of prickly pear

defined by sun and shade,

red, ripe fruit adorned,

belove'd of wild pigs.

 

Golden grass;

woodpeckers flap

in the ocotillo,

leafless from drought,

seeming dead

yet confident

of resurrection.

Late afternoon long shadows;

blue rabbits leave

their cooling scrapes

to move and feed.

 

A cottontail lopes

through sun-dappled weeds;

cactus wren nosy;

the chipmunk drinks

from the cooler-water pool.

Three sonora doves

quietly sit

in a dying palo verde,

green needles sparse

amid peeling brown boughs.

Palo verde and saguaro,

the cactus wren

exploring its harvest

of sensual red fruit;

players on the desert stage,

backdrop of noble clouds,

all in the arms of...immensity.

 

 

Copyright by Don Gray