Sonnet to a Mesquite Tree in July

Perhaps because of the presence of the nearby Galiuro Mountains, we are seeing real monsoon weather here. Not a lot of rain has arrived, but there have been a few downpours, and the afternoon clouds have been impressive.

All the wild things have been so happy for the moisture—animals and plants alike! This sonnet is a brief tribute to the resilience of the mesquite tree in the middle of our new backyard.

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Your many leaves make lace of ardent green,
Still pale from watching through the days of sun
That dripped his molten gold through your light screen
Too close, too close, before his yearly run
Turned elsewhere and the rains began to fall.
But now your green burns deep against a sky
Gray-black with cloud; your fearless fingers all
Reach outward and assure my waiting eye
That hell will pass, that Paradise returns
In silver and in green, instinct with life
That has not yielded though the solstice burns
Its path too near, for we are not at strife,
But frail. Come sun or storm, like you we may
But reach our souls out to the coming day.