Poems by Rina Ferrarelli

The Desert in Bloom

by Rina Ferrarelli

From Canary February/March 2009

Every year a little less water,
the struggle keener for the tough
desert plants, but today
the 15th of May, the desert is green,
greenest in the only green time,
dwarf pines and stunted junipers
glistening deep green, chirping loudly,
fluttering with small brown birds.
And all the big and small bushes
rise like bouquets of green
out of the sand, the reddish dirt,
the green of sage and Mormon's tea,
cactus and yucca, cliff rose
and rice grass, so many shades
of green, even the horse manure
dries green on the trails.
In the distance, the orange and white
rocks have sprouts of green,
and still green in Navajo memory
the sorrowful journey, the cruel wintering.
Smeared with red, the sharp-tipped grass
at the edge of the road.

First published in “Green Fuse”