Dearth
By Austin Holmes
Walking along the dry streambed
in late summer
I am not so accustomed
to such dense foliage here
yet those two dead cottonwoods
remain, consistent on the bank
side by side are these
twin shadows of lightning
the cracked, platy soil
curls like singed paper
cow prints gouge the surface
like tumid black wounds
in one, a web resides
spanning the shade-gorged remnant
the water is trapped
in the shells of leaves
Canyon Echo 