After the storm

For five long days
Fierce winds battered the walls of this casita
Hammering rain on rattling shutters

Today was a different day

Outside my door
A fleeting rainbow
Dissolved in morning light

Soon after
I found myself walking
The asequia trail

Lovage, hemlock
And other wild, water-loving friends
Steal my glance
As I sing my way upstream

There are many places
Where a woman might stop and wash her wounds

Here amongst the fallen rocks
And cloud-kissing eucalyptus

I plunge my naked body
Into the ice-cold mountain spring

And in a heart-stopping moment
I wonder

Would it ever be possible to leave this place?
This precious, fragrant land of sweet abundance

Who repeatedly whispers me
Home.