sonora2sonoma

Waiting for the rain

Birds of many different shapes and sizes

converge outside my office window

to drink and bathe in the small pools

that sit beneath potted plants

dependent on the occasional dispensation

from my drip irrigation system;

their best bet for relief

from the worst drought in five centuries.

***

This land,

drying up, cries for relief

instantaneously absorbing

what scant moisture humidity provides.

***

These trees–

like canaries in a coal mine

like first responders when the Towers fell

show the damage explicitly

their ability to repel invaders

curtailed by their compromised hydraulics.

***

The woodland creatures

compete for whatever food resources remain

after so much time

with so little rain.

***

The humans

whose populations used to fluctuate

based on rainfall measurements

in a simpler time

before resources became available over distance

now seem less susceptible

the damage implicit, less apparent

yet present nonetheless.

***

Another kind of damage–

the damage wrought by the fires

urgent and personal,

incomprehensible, desolate

altering landscapes

both internal and external.

***

The humans

subverting natural order

with housing development

necessitating fire suppression efforts

where, in a simpler time,

when houses were portable,

none would have been necessary.

***

While brightening the spirits of the people

when the rains come,

will they dampen the spread of the fires?

Will they relieve the suffering?

Is the rain a gift from above?

an artifact

of the anthropomorphism of nature?

***

Does the land cry out for rain?

Or does rain fall like a flower blooms

like yeast rises, or the sun,

indifferent to our notions,

comes with the dawn?

***

Like hapless hitchhikers

we plead for rain.

Like an unconcerned incumbent

the rain hitches rides on the wind.

***

Whither the rain goes, or why . .

So long as it brings relief

Does it matter?

*

Tim Konrad

16 September 2015