Advice on How to Live With Fifteen Years of Drought

Climb high onto

the naked mountain

Weep over the carcass of a deer

mummifying in the dry canyon

Listen to the stones

the bleached algae peeling back

from the river rocks

Open to the keen of bees

and mosquitos

as they gather

over the scum

of the last of the pools

deep in the shadows

beneath a trickle of a waterfall

Find memories

like crumpled paper

in the pockets of blue jeans

you long ago outgrew

Uncover the rusty weapon
the map
the thorn that tears skin

Pick up the shield 
send down roots
and take your place 
on the vanishing boundary
between hungry ghosts
and wild eyes