water

by Rose Hunter

water

a dark cloud hangs but if rain falls it evaporates

before it hits while            millions

of toilets flush sinks drain            the shutter shake

release repeat of sprinklers in Summerlin

& Green Valley golf courses

suck it up.           our banter over the star-

burst where i bit my cheek, that ridgeline

i run my tongue over in this city named after

what is not here anymore.            the mesquite groves

willows cottonwoods & saltgrass that grew once

maybe even in our barren yard            the spinach

ricegrass chia broomrape screwbean devil’s

claw blazing star           (not so long ago); tales

of water grabs & reclamation acts            water buffalos

hairy-eared & glinting in the shadows

like the shrub ox did here once            what

will our descendants            (if any)

descend to?            at Lake Mead

cobalt blue rider & Klein Blue, to leap            i say

into the void (arms outstretched, back arched

the beginning of a doomed swan dive)            you

me            the lake keeps us all alive somehow.

i read about it but that doesn’t tell me

how.            my inability to comprehend scale, you

say; the solution to pollution is dilution, the water

people say & after all            people

fish swim waterski (DDT PCB heavy metals

ammonium perchlorate) (endocrine disruptors

scrambled instructions eunuch fish            frankenfish)

gaps           punctuations whats

you say desert i say dessert (switcheroo):            thinking

of you under the shower, shaking your head, your cheeks

train-like rumbling, full body            sighing snorting

delighting            for this i call you

true hedonist           (& some sort of note to self)

an oasis too is a convergence of opposites

like plankton & the whale. a drop

of sweat into Lake Mead            the subsidence

& rebound jet           the circular cymbaling waves

they say the ultimate water crisis is not here

& won’t get here            not ultimately

but it ultimately will happen, but it keeps getting

pushed back           ultimately, like a Teflon politician

but you know there must come a day.             but

how we loved to leap

splash somersault round & round scanning for

flashes of fool’s gold in the form of small

remedies           (ways you can help!)           & other clever

we thought            bargainings, into the dark turning

we never wanted to come back in

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