Friday, April 2, 2010

PAD Day 2 - Water *


Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve 

It hasn’t rained for months.
The Santa Ana winds
are blowing dust and grit
into every pore and cranny
of skin and furniture.
The mountains
have been invisible for days,
cloaked in wind and dust.
in the backyard lettuce seedlings struggle,
 need water twice a day.

Yet I know, not far away
there is a miracle,
a place for rehydration of my
dried out desert soul.
Pocket wetland,  eye of water,
waving cattails, lily pads,
rushes, reeds and ferns.
All the thirsty green things
find home and shelter here.
Even in the hottest days of summer
 the air is damp and green,
 alive with forbs and flowers, nodding willows,
butterflies and birds.
Bullfrogs wallow in the shallows
at the edges of the pond,
bask on rafts of rotted vegetation,
under hovering damselflies.
High desert miracle of hidden wetland,
watercress and cactus

side by side.

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