After so much rain earlier this month, our waterways are jubilant. A week ago Loki and I walked a trail we’ve only done once before, in September; I hardly noticed a creek running through ranchland just to the north. This time, I couldn’t miss it.
Since Our Last Walk Here
Below the RR track, rangeland green with winter grass
and peaceable pasture, a creek in no hurry –
suddenly wild with so much rain, how many droplets
over how wide a watershed, a wonderland of rapids over boulders,
so many braids of water coming together, then diverting,
and as we move upstream, torrents over the falls.
All the confluences it took to get here, where I stand –
gatherings of waters, tribes, human revisions of landscape,
cloudbursts on top of droughts.
Above the falls, the creek is wide but peaceable
through pasture, burbling over small rocks without a sound.
~ Taylor Graham
