our land here      has suffered

dry and brittle as old bones          parched with a deadly thirst

for, instead of a winter’s rainfall

our once well-tended gardens have succumbed

to repeated icy mornings        and bitter, deadening            moisture-less chills…

in the last two days, the skies have opened      gifting us with rains

this is what we danced for      prayed for          have fretted over now for months…

our stormy sky here holds         clouds, black and ominous

sitting heavily overhead and on an invisible horizon….

this new weather    has moody CA humans         grumbling already

over drenched clothes     soggy shoes    smelly wet critters    and  flooded roadways..

while others are already

dreaming of warm sands in an unreachable paradise

all,  feeling guilty for not

welcoming these downpours      even while rejoicing that a drought

might now be averted..

our rivers and creeks

sat stagnant for weeks on end        clogged and now churning

with dead branches and leftover fall clearance

now, they sing with the threat of eminent flood waters

and we humans          uncertain still

hunker in      under mounds of down comforters          searching for the warmth     the dry…

embrace the cozy fireside moments          the peace found in falling asleep to the sounds of rain on an old roof         or the pattering of it on a bedroom skylite

as the heavens open

pelting us with more whispered consequences      listen closely:

an eastern seaboard socked in with          unforgiving    relentless falling snow

ice-caps, melting          volcanoes rumbling      uncertain oceans, once teeming with life, clouded and deadly              seismic plates shifting from the weight        of our dysfunction and greed

feel the tears         and hear in the raindrops

the musings from a much-neglected          much abused

earth…