The Sonoran Desert, January

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.