WATER FUTURES

WATER FUTURES

Day One

Water futures soaring

Overhead,

Denying baptism to thirsty,

Fire-prone land,

Tempting with humid, undrinkable

Air

As the currents carry the promise

Further east, perhaps to flush

Out the desert dust

And leave the citizens' tongues parched

Again. 

Wildfires rage, race through fuels

Created by prolonged water-denial.

Some wish,

Some pray,

Some dance

To satisfy a need

Overlooked in el nino's visitations. 

Pages turn, orbit continues, 

Rotation remains constant, 

All things in their time;

This includes elusive rain.

Meanwhile,

Manzanita and chaparral,

Wild grass, now bone-dry,

Vulnerable to careless people,

Carefree lightning.

And water futures I won't place

My money on are floating

Overhead, just out of reach.

Day Two

The clouds of offering are gone,

Sent onward, by the winds,

Heading in the wrong direction

In this poet's opinion,

To do any good. Perhaps

There is concurrent need

Not yet known,

The ounce of prevention

Against ten thousand gallons of 

Cure.

The skies, with small dots of

Clouds now let the heat

Escape in infrared waves

Heading upward and outward,

This dry, end of summer ritual

Just another of the dances

We, here on the surface, never

Truly comprehending,

Must powerlessly observe,

Ever hopeful, ever wishing,

For the chill wind.  Only then,

We wish back the warmth

Of summer fled.

Summer holds its place

Until its sands, too,

Have vanished from

The hourglass.

And still, we dream of

Water.

The firefighters wish for home,

Their  soft beds and

The beautiful riot

Of normal.

Copyright (c) 2013 by the author