Desert
Sky
Rose Carroll
These weeks of parched and white-hot sky
Have rolled in scorching, and rolled by
And left the torrid air in turn
For desert trees and leaves to burn.
Spring greens held shortly; darker green
There followed quickly where had been
So briefly blossoms, now dried pod
On pod adorned the ground. Now trod
By shoes all dredged in kicked-up dust
As (walking desert paths) they must.
Weeks have rolled in and have rolled on
From dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn
Still hotter, starker, day by day
Till all seemed like high noon, some way.
And yet tonight, a miracle
Alighted, dark and lyrical:
Just when our desert hearts forgot
What wetness was, in deed or thought
It thundered in, on lightning wing —
We thought it must be Seraphs sing —
Forgotten bliss so stirred the soul
Until our hearts were near too full.
For there, on blazing chariot clouds
All flashing white like bursting shrouds,
Unto the dead, dry desert: “Live!
Come, drink!” — this call the rain did give.
Oh, keep your tropics, beaches, I
Will wait for rain from desert sky.
