Tag Archives: rain

News – October 2021

News — October 2021Dear Joe, I am sor­ry that I for­got to call you on Sunday.The weath­er here is changing;summer is ending;tomorrow the first fall storm arrives.The trees aren’t turn­ing col­or so much as los­ing color.The ferns bend under the weight of the rain that drops from the trees.Leaves fall into the mud and become … 

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Cloud Bellies

Cloud Belliessuch a vio­let rit­u­al­some bluer skies­some yel­low­ing cracked sun­above a mad­den­ing­ly green­n­ev­er sleep­ing worldthe lit­tle sheep baa at the fas­tar­riv­ing rain cloudswith over­hang­ing bel­lies if you hate being told to breathe just stand there qui­etlyamid the tum­bling corn stalks and­hay bales stacked in inter­lock­ing patternsPublished on The Laundry Line, August 19, 2025.

smoke season

smoke sea­son­smoke cov­ers us in sum­mer now.no one can breathe properly.we don’t pan­ic, exactly,but there is agrow­ing foreboding.by Augustthe smell is in our houses.it’s in the sheets at night­in our tow­els in the morn­ing. we begin to taste it in our food:smoked oatmeal,grilled milk. but the sun­sets are brilliant,even other-worldly. they reflect all the colors … 

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Water Delivery

Water Delivery Oaxaca, February 13, 2025 12:30amI should clean up the freesias in that vase.The blos­soms are falling off the stems.They don’t smell as strong­ly this year as they did last year.But at least I have them. I searched in the mar­ket Sunday.There was only one woman with a few tat­tered bunch­es. No gar­de­nias this … 

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Waiting for the Rains

Waiting for the Rains20 miles to the north the Bolt Creek fire burns up a draw towards the ridge climb­ing along lines laid deep in the soilit burns first one waythen anoth­erthe weird sen­tience of wild fire­its imper­a­tive to con­sume and grownow blocked and burn­ing back on itself­burn­ing the trees to char­coal and then burning … 

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