Ashe Junipers sway,
in a warm summer’s breeze
As a hawk remains perched,
in a live oak tree
While we write sonnets,
in a field of bluebonnets
A radiant sun
beats down,
tuning in and out
emerging and fading,
behind cumulus clouds
Casting shadows of relief
sweat beading down
in the Texas heat
mosquitoes swarm in thirst
Blue Jays quarrel,
in a brush of mountain laurels
Deer warily tip-toe
down the river,
under weeping willows
startled by creeping crocodiles
Or alligators? We ponder hazily,
in our stoned candor
A barn owl
scavenges the ground
rats scurry around
A rumble,
cry of the solstice
luminating the sky
crackling through plains
dusk
crickets erupt in a
message from the dead
Nostalgic memories
of a distant land
Your gaze is fleeting
like the tide of day
submerged
in flickering grains of sand