TURN, TURN, TURN

It’s rained like I can’t remember

and the Llano Estacado is green

in a million hues. Even the steep red

walls of every ravine cascade in new

growth where some off-kilter seeds

have lain in wait for what must be

decades.

My eyes puzzle out these

unfamiliar pixels, and are confused

because all the browns and ambers

have dissolved into a verdant joy.

My nose runs and my

clothes drip saline in this

thick humidity.

But look at my garden,

lush with peas and beans

conquering the fence

More squash than we’ll eat

in a year; huge, yellow crooknecks

and giant zucchinis where there were

none just last night.

The ranchers with their whole

sections reach for the sky

with soy, cotton and corn they

don’t have to irrigate in mile wide

circles. And the cattle graze

everywhere you look across pastures

too arid any other year.

Oldtimers can’t remember when

it was ever like this, and shake

their heads when I ask.

Twenty years ago the drought was

twenty years old, so I’ve never seen

the reservoirs so full, or water in the

Salt Fork of the Red River,

but there it is and those cows dip their

udders in deep, blue ponds

I never knew were there.

Yesterday, my neighbor, Starla,

gave us some cucumbers from her

over abundance, because I forgot

to plant my own, and we talked over

the fence. She’d been a ranch cook

for years across from T. Boone Pickens’

place, and she knows a thing or two.

The sky was cloudy and there was thunder

in the distance with dark rain fifteen miles

to the north. She shook her head,

said, “With all this tall grass and weeds,

when the rain is over, the fires

will be terrible.

And they were.

Reviews

[Mistress G (This Accoun..]

Hey Vol, I know Texas is blessed. My kid lives there and talks about how beautiful it is. I was there when I was about 2 but don't remember much. Do you think Mexico will be declared a state?
Really a beautiful poem!

[Vol]

Glenda,
Thank you! As to Mexico, We do not have enough resources to fix such a violent culture. I don't want Canada either... I'm a southeasterner myself and miss the forests and splashy creeks, but my eyes still love what they see here on the Llano Estacado.
Vol

[Mistress G (This Account is rated Mature)]

Amen.
Friendship.

[Vol]

Glenda,
Where in North Carolina are you, my whole family lives in Wake Forest.
Vol

[Mistress G (This Account is rated Mature)]

I'm almost at the front gate of SJAFB. Not a lot of lovely scenery but if the Bomb goes off, I won't suffer! Lolsss.

[Vol]

Hahaha!, I get it... Amarillo builds all kinds of secret stuff for the military and is a prime target. When the missiles fly, I hope I have enough time to drive there...
Vol

[Mistress G (This Account is rated Mature)]

YUP! Well, we are Nuclear. So, if Putin or North Korea or any of the others bomb our base, we will be just a gigantic hole in the ground.

[Mistress G (This Account is rated Mature)]

BUT OUR WARHEADS WILL BE HEADED FOR THEM! IT'S EXCITING IN A WAY! LIKE THE ENDING OF THE TERMINATOR!

[Vol]

Glenda,
I was alive during the Cuban missile crises and can remember sitting crosslegged under my desk, my hands my eyes on my arm in case the commies threw some at Memphis.
Vol

[Mistress G (This Account is rated Mature)]

When Kennedy had the world wondering if were were on the edge of Armagedon

[Vol]

It was a close call...

[redzone]

It's interesting how things change, isn't it. Everything changes, nothing is left untouched. I think your poem describes this artistically. Thank you for sharing.
-Curt

[Vol]

Thanks, Curt.
When the world itself runs from season to season everything makes some kind of sense, when people change as dramatically as my part of Texas, it's rarely pretty. Our insanity blooms like flowers.
Vol