Thirst by Claire Ibarra

Thirst

On a dirt road in Death Valley

I encountered a lone coyote

We contemplated one another

Hungry from meager sand dune fare

We looked to the distant peaks

Of the mercurial Amargosa Range

In Shoshone land is Hell’s Gate

Where one can balance on Dante’s Ridge

And salt beds glisten like petrified snow

Alluvial fans are skeletons of waterways

One year back in 1929, there was

No rainfall at all, not a drop

I asked the coyote, do you rain dance?

By Claire Ibarra

www.poeticphotoprints.com

www.claireibarra.com