sunsets
Almost Autumn
Golden glow lays over the land
Praying mantis walks up the window
Storm clouds gently glide through azure
Rain
months of nothing
six inches below normal
suddenly late afternoon
downpours, flooding
three waterfalls off canyon cliff
double rainbow
birds sing evensongs
and now this
This Evening
Raging wind gone still
Mockingbird carols to Sunset
Dusk whispers to Night
Day 127
Tan grass stretches miles and miles as far as eyes can see.
The water in the indigo bird bath evaporates in one day.
Playa lakes, full last summer, surrounded then in emerald grass, lay waterless.
Thirty-five miles an hour winds create fog-like clouds of dust across the horizon.
Grit, wind hurled, buffets cars and trucks driving down the long, straight highways.
Dust-fed sunrises and sunsets clad skies in orange, hot pink, vermillion, violet, mauve.
Day 127 with no measurable precipitation.
Note: I wrote this ten days ago. That evening it rained .01 inches. None since then. We are approaching four months with just that .01 inches, nothing more. Every time it warms and the winds come, the weather forecast mentions high fire danger. All counties and state parks near here have burn bans. March is a windy month.
Evening Showers
Horses fed
Thunder
Lightning
Silence
Thunder
Downpour
Sunset
Beauty
Late summer
Evening
Clouds
Clouds
Sunrise
Sunset
Beauty
Summer
After the Storm
Stillness
Golden light
Birdsong
Sunset
Peace
Winter Sunset
wind stills, an unusual calm settles
geese fly so low, the whir of wings floats earthward
two hoot owls call, haunting echoes in the canyon
cerise, vermillion, amber encompass the land
a chill creeps slowly through ancient junipers
Autumn Evening
owl hoots, perches atop a dead juniper
fire and cerise sunsets
autumn chill floats through the air