Tag: drought

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Acts of God

This dry heat is killing the redbud trees.

You see them around town patched yellow

or completely brown, bewildered, I imagine.

I heard about the 7-year drought of Texas

in the fifties, rivers dried up, grass-fed cattle

dying, ranchers giving up and moving

to town to take up other trades.

When the rain finally came it would not stop.

Floods tore through the state wreaking

more havoc and another kind of destruction.

Some would call these things acts of God.

On today’s radio there are stories about the

failing corn crop, the soybeans that might

not make it, a crusty farmer’s voice saying

Now we’re just waiting on the good Lord.

But I like to imagine a God who neither acts

out of spite nor deals out cards good or bad,

but one who hopes for the best

wishes we could bloody well get it right

and whose patience far outlasts our own.

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Still the Heat

In this protracted dry heat the birds hop

about, their thin beaks open, panting.

The Cooper’s hawk flies down, perches

on my neighbor’s low roof and stands

with wings spread open drooping like a tent.

The stream that runs along my yard is dry and dusty

so I’ve put a dish of water out, a makeshift birdbath

though I’ve not seen any bird using it.

We are to expect no relief any time soon

just the welcome setting of the sun each evening

and the rise of the perfect moon untouched

by the vagaries of weather here on Earth.

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Oh For Some Rain!

Searing heat blankets my town

no rain of any sort on the horizon

the creek (what’s left of it) lying

still as death a thin film on its surface.

These late June days are longer than

I remember the sun high and hot

for hours and hours and though I love it

and even embrace the challenge of

shouldering through as if facing a

monumental onslaught of snow and ice

stocking up groceries and staying put

indoors for the duration I do hope

for a giant swashbuckling storm to roll

rollicking over the hills and bluffs

inciting the creek to riot upon its banks

a wind making everything twirl and dance.