summer storm

Coy virga leave the ground unsatisfied
it's hot, thick breath's been wasted on thin air
the gust-front kicks around what laid there, dried
but all its moisture's carried off, elsewhere.
The desert flora specialize in dearth,
but every year or two, still need a storm
delivering redemption to the Earth
in places where to desiccate's the norm.
Bright scarves of rain, dark veils of steel-grey sleet
with thunder syncopating melodies
still leave this courtship dangling, incomplete
nine times in ten, it's just a dry-run tease.
When wadis gush, and grabens inundate
each Blue Moon sees this drama consummate.

insular

This week in Bangladesh dwarfs Texans' loss
the county's at sea-level, built on mud
but somehow, International RedCross
seems wholly focused on the Houston flood
four hundred cable channels, who can choose
for special-market sectors of all sorts
no two Americans agree what's news
'though hearts all beat as one for broadcast sports.
Yet no report arrives from past our shores
we're told the viewing public just don't care
we only go abroad when waging wars
attention doesn't linger over there.
When "foreigner" defaults to mean a foe
it's hard to love the neighbor you don't know.

aftermath

the overriding mass of warm, moist air
produces rain that freezes on contact
a wonderland in crystal armor fair
each twig a prism in which light refracts
a static glory, stilllife set in glass
but wind and gravity are twin landmines
bare trees were not designed for so much mass
and some will crash down on our powerlines
perspective tints our view of such a scene
a landlord waiting for maintenance crews
might feel the splendid landscape not as keen
as transients without a stake to lose
what's Truth? what's Beauty? it's so hard to say
so much looks different each passing day

legion

sympatric speciation makes no sense
for lake Nyassa's cichlid repertoire
were it one pool, gene-mixing's too intense
what's now one lake was myriad before
each drought estranged genes in the sundry ponds
where local challenges chose fittest traits
without invoking any magic wands
constraining fishy choices of a mate
wet years now bridged the archipelago
and reunited cousins to compete
most cycles, net diversity will grow
'though most are merely something new to eat
hydrology's retold in fins and scales
for those with eyes to read the fishes' tales

roll on

basaltic palisades hem waters in
Columbia traverses the Palouse
a dry state's fever-dream of sapphire gin
illuminating cities with its juice
mere yards away, high desert's all around
no drop's distracted from the distant sea
blue garter cinched around a  world of brown
where water's scant but solar comes for free
while Portland dreams of such a sunny day
in John Day, all the leaves are Pleistocene
a landscape all composed in brown and grey
strains to remember  vistas painted green
from Great White North to hipsters, high to low
the ever-changing river's waters flow

institutional oppression

"lead poisoning"'s used euphemistically
to circumlocute deaths in a gang war
but Snyder saw a way to shave a fee
corrupting service to Flint's urban poor
lead plumbing irrigated Nero's digs
and under-laid New York's first cobbled streets
but now it's found unsafe for even pigs
for all intent and purpose, obsolete
that Black Lives Matter is self-evident
and so our constitution testifies
but when you trace how tax dollars get spent
that high-fallutin' language sounds like lies
'til Black and White are treated all the same
the Press must shine a light on Flint's rigged game