March 2024
Glad that we headed out a day early for southern Arizona. Didn’t matter though because we hit snow at Flagstaff and crappy roads and drivers from there through Phoenix. But then we traded a bouquet on a breakfast table for poppies in the Mt. Wrightson Wilderness.
Road Trip
Packing the car for a road trip
shouldn’t be rocket science.
I like the certainty of the transparent
plastic boxes,
my husband the nylon stuff sacks that fill in
the intractable corners and crannies.
Lavender in March
We leave winter behind—the
pitiless plaster of sand & ice,
potholes in asphalt, the
scoured underside of our car.
Now here, winter still
scoffs at desert lavender,
the scent of oil on fingers and lips,
the almost periwinkle blue buds,
I think I can bring home.
Liberty
Out the passenger window
how We Love Our Liberty.
Look again and it’s nothing more
than a model of Jeep, clean as only
a car wash can make it. Flags whipped
by the bluster of wind more than haggard
in such colorless gray light of
driven snow and sad sad miles.
Tuscon Botanical Garden
A treat to spend a couple of hours and have lunch here with Elli. The cacti and aloes have so many protective strategies. Don’t tread on me could be their slogan. Learning to witness and not to take.
blackhen 