if I were to ask

 

if I were to ask the land

here where the weather is everything

here where we are so close to the sun

why it lured me here

I know it would say

because 

here you see the sun rise over the eastern hills

dawn arrives with birdsong and grace 

here in the springtime the sun sets in the cleft between hills

while these breasts of earth are still rocky and dry

and you can never know when the rain will come

here you learn gratitude

for each twilight

for each bit of tree dappled shade

for learning to walk between the spines

of nopales organos garambullos cardones

and a multitud of prickly fellow travelers of all kind 

whose names you have never learned

and even for those you have

here a droplet is never taken foregranted

cannot be taken foregranted

and yet still somewhere underground

rivers flow

here you learn to smell their waters with your skin

you are but a transient form on the landscape

here you learn to walk

—Lorena Wolfman