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Thursday, January 09, 2014

COLORADO RIVER

by Amy Brunvand


Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States --NY Times, January 5, 2014. Photo source: Western Resource Advocates.


A watercolor wash of
rain
Smears darkly from a thunderhead,
Dangles, unraveling in the
sky
Virga drips from the arms
Of an ochre painted ghost
With hollow white eyes
Who keeps watch from a sandstone
cliff
Bearing witness to the blood-red
flood
Pulsing though the veins
That branch through the heart of red
rock
Carrying water viscous with red
silt
That no longer bleeds into the
sea.


Amy Brunvand is a librarian and a monthly contributor to Catalyst Magazine in Salt Lake City, Utah.