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DREAMING OF GREEN PLACES
The gods curse this land withholding blessings.
Canyons empty of water, dry washes
Hold no moist sustenance yet the sheep thrive
Living on a prayer, a promise of rain.
Cactus wren patrols solitary ground.
Sings her song while dreaming of green places.
Coyote haunts these canyons, a specter,
A smoke-colored wraith. Lean, rangy, hungry.
Alone I wander the sere sunburned hills.
Silent witness to grim desolation.
These are places man is not meant to be.
In search of shade, I walk through the canyons,
Rest from the sun under the rock walls and
Dream of green places in the cool darkness.
SINGING HOME THE MOON
Where is she tonight? Has she lost her way?
Puzzled, all eyes turn to the sky above.
Their laments rip the night. Mournful, anguished.
They draw closer together in their grief.
Their lithe rangy bodies hold much sorrow.
Suddenly their tone changes—here she is.
Moon peeps her round shy face over the ridge.
Yellow eyes gaze upward, she blesses them.
One glad cry parts the night as darkness fades.
They honor her as Moon rises above,
Commands the heavens, and outshines the stars.
They welcome her, turn and enter the night.
A sacred ritual ageless as time.
The coyotes are singing home the moon.
CIRCLES OF STONE
By the shores of this ancient lake
They lived.
From outcrops of jasper, flint, and chalcedony
In the nearby hills
They crafted tools of stone.
By the shores of this ancient lake
They lived.
Resting on mats
Woven with reeds that surrounded the shore
Like an army of stiff backed soldiers.
By the shores of this ancient lake
They lived.
Catching fish in narrow v-shaped weirs of stone.
Hunting birds with arrows made of bone.
Sleeping in cleared circles of stone.
Their trails crossed the desert to the sea
Paths bermed with offerings of sherds and shells,
And long forgotten messages carved in stone.
They lived.
Close to the bones of Mother Earth.
Until the hot dry wind blew
And the shallow lake went away
Leaving only circles of stone.
Susanne J. Rowe is an artist, writer, and archaeologist who lives and works in the Mojave Desert.
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