Miles and miles of nothing, sparsely vegetated
with Joshua trees, desert wildflowers,
ocotillo cactus.
Not much to look at, but
plenty of it to see.
saguaros
guardians of the sonora
a battalion wafting
in one hundred degree heat
standing sentry on granite slopes
vertical green etches
in carmel cliffs
literally--litter the foothills
rising up the mountain
saguaros fall away
ocotillos remain
their leafy tentacles flailing
like upside down tarantulas
dotting the crevices and shelves
along with mexican oak
climbing higher
ocotillo give way
to arizona cypress, alligator juniper,
and too many nondeciduous oaks to name
desert? what desert?
temperature's dropped to sixty four
at six thousand feet
aspen and maple emerge
a little further
along come all the conifers
tall dark forests of
douglas fir and ponderosa pine
nearing the summit there's...
snow? not snow. in august?
no, not snow. really?
nine thousand feet
corkbark fir and a
couple of spruce
it's now a cool
fifty two
town on top
we stop
baby needs hoody
and hot chocolate
grandpa needs
to fathom it all
fifty miles,
six thousand five hundred feet
below
it's one hundred and three
sky island
not overrated
There's nothing "just" about August
--not in Southern AZ.
Monsoon busts--no more dust.
Desert turns into a sea of green.
Happy hour's afternoon showers.
Bare ocotillo grow waxy leaves.
Canyon walls sprout water falls
Arroyos flow like mountain springs
There's nothing "just"about August
--not in Southern AZ.
Long, tall and skinny, thorns all the way around, not a leaf one
If you should camp at night on the desert floor, circle it with The Devil's Rope
A rattle snake will not crawl over it, after a night's rain it will be in full
bloom
Desert display
as Saguaro's spiny arms
raise to the darkening blue sky.
Days of heat waves
chase Ocotillo flower buds
drooping slowly in the mauve air
very still ... and then,
with the distant rumble of thunder
and a flash of lightening,
comes a first drop.
Coming fast, the rain begins
a flood within the gulch
and there, from nowhere,
from the nothing dust,
from the ether
reconstituted
as out of a mirage
appears by the side of the road ...
a toad.