Dry Alive

author’s note:

In an interview, the actor Tommy Lee Jones claimed that he used to attract squirrels by knocking two fifty-cent pieces together.

Unable to locate any fifty-cent pieces, I tried to do the same with two quarters.

But squirrels, apparently, are not so cheaply bought.


DRY ALIVE

Despite an occasional cough
I am breathing well
these dry days.

Even the simplest act--
    appreciating the squirrel’s
    hoarse, strained barking--
can lead me into real time.

My birds gather quizzically--
wait for puddles to appear

but the wise cloud knows
when to release rain.

To write about dryness
--imaginary emptiness--
vitals my blood.  Honest expression--
even when wrong--corpuscles
this life well.  So many secrets
I’m still trying to tell myself.

Here’s one secret:
           the worst drought
can bring more
than the best rain shower--
I’ve received so much
from dusting on this trail.

When the desert wind rustles
these bare branches into fear
the sky shatters
and yet--I can still see
an open blue heaven.

© 2008, Michael R. Patton
dream work