September 2021
Author's Note: . A good summer rain deluge moistened our forest in the last week of July and resumed about ten days ago to drop an additional 7 inches of the forest saving liquid silver.. Happily. The rains were not a deluge but a steady gentle rain that soaked in well. The forest on our mountain looks better and healthier than I have seen it in years. The rains also put down several forest fires here I northern Arizona. Thank goodness.
Lest They Starve
Beneath a canopy of full trees shading
the world of Maya faith stands a ancient stone
shrine to Pasqual Abaj - staring into the sky
where worshipers know gods reside.
Thin blue wisps of copal smoke rise
through becalmed mountain air, caressing
pine needles where Sinsontle sings
tirelessly, commanding rain to come.
In humility two women kneel at the shrine
knees and toes wedded to mother earth, as smoke
carries their prayers to end the civil war
to protect their husbands and sons.
No pews nor straight isles lead
to someone exhorting the women
what to believe or to whom to pray
or how to behave when talking to a god.
Their barely audible murmurs ask for
harmony with nature, family safety
and for rain for their crops of corn
and beans, lest they starve.
Chichiastenango, Guate
Sinsontle:a grey & white mockingbird
Next Thing We Knew
When Linda and I were tikes
during serious Illinois winters,
our nanny held blankets
before the fireplace,
folded them quickly
then dashed to bedside
to cover us with them and a kiss.
Next thing we knew,
it was morning.
©2021 Earl Vincent DeBerge
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