En'Shallah

Shivering,
stand in wet snow
        listening to thunder,
        as sleet melts
        into rainfall
                
The sun's glinting light
        pulls forth a pretty posy
here and there
        until barrages of bloom
rupture the earth.
        
Day after day of bloom bursting...
        
And the deep indigo
        of an oriental night
        is beautifully fragrant
with jasmine.
        
        By day the desert heat
        comes back
        to claim all color,
        washing the hills
with brown stubble
        which the goats will graze to aught.

                       Presume, as you stand on barren stone
        that soon enough, next spring-
        
        En'Shallah...

        This rock ledge will once again
        brim
        with flowers
        and a crumbling castle
        will be a thousand urns
        of growth.

poem copyright © 2000 Anne Selden Annab