The Sonoran Desert, January

Linda Pastan

In this unfinished landscape
of space and sky
they tell me flowers will bloom later
and in strange colors, vivid
as fever dreams.

They tell me the saguaro cactus will seem
beautiful, that their creature shapes
are of this earth,
though they have the look
of another planet.

And the lizards, live outcroppings
of the rock,
the iguanas and horned toads
are also of this time,
this endless place.

Stay a while, they tell me.
The green hills back east
will seem as nothing
after these smoky hills.
The thirst you will learn here

is like no other thirst.
For the first time you will understand
what the sun-that burning thistle-asks
what water
so briefly answers.