These flash floods tear through

and erode one’s homeland.

They wash away the topsoil and

leave in their wake

gullies, ditches and silt.

 

The first impulse—

divert the flow off the land,

renunciate it,

so it won’t cause so much trouble!

 

But then the Divine presents

a perma-love way:

use the flow to my benefit.

 

I dig swales, trenches and ponds,

build berms and rock dams,

directing the current toward

a higher purpose.

 

I plant Mexican hat, cosmos, flax,

daisies and sunflowers;

and I sow gramma grass,

fescue and hairy vetch.

 

Pollinating trees—

Arizona ash, buffaloberry and chokecherry—

now attract bees and birds.

 

No longer does the flow

rake downhill

devastating everything in its path.

 

Instead it meanders along the land

and mingles with the bounty,

creating whole new worlds

of beauty.