I trudge down to the mailbox in the chilly twilight. Opening it, I’m pleased to find it almost full. Looks like a few people remembered my birthday, I think. Moving out to the middle of nowhere hasn’t made people forget about me.

It’s too cold to linger by the mailbox so I quickly scoop what’s inside and hurry back to the warmth of the house. I throw the stack of mail onto the kitchen table and s...

Xóchitl is

a little flower

Darting here and there

Enjoying every hour.

She races

Throughout the day

Leaping and running

Always ready to play.

The rhythm

Begins to slow

Her eyes not so bright

The gray hairs grow.

Xóchitl is

a little flower

She lives in my heart

Each minute, each hour....

The stars were what she liked most about the sky.

Then, they started to fall.

“You’re hurting me!” she cried in anguish.

The cold, hard stars continued to fall

Uncaring and relentless.

“I thought you were my friends,” she wept.

She curled into a ball and covered her face with her hands.

The stars covered her completely.

A new constellation was born....

Slowly bubbling deep inside

Water in a cooking pot

Soon reaches a crescendo

And fills the room with laughter...

We live in a land where the footprints of ghosts linger

Dancing in the dust that the wind puffs up.

Swirling around the ancient saguaros

And singing with them in the black, black night.

The ghosts own the solitude.

We are only welcome if we honor the past

And preserve the future.

The footprints linger....

The path begins, twisting and turning

Through the low hanging trees, the rocky soil.

I keep going, blindly following the path

Tripping, falling, getting up again.

I’m back at the beginning. Try once more.

Blindly brushing away the branches

Never stopping.

The sun! A clearing!

I run towards the light.

The pit before me seems to open like the jaws of a monster.

I fall into darkness....

Roaring, rumbling, hurtling down the hill. The sound of a thunderous herd, but no animal in sight. The water leaps and dances, skipping over half-buried rocks. Its force takes your breath away. What would it be like to slip off the muddy bank into the water? The stream is deceptively deep, the rocks sharp. Nature is both creation and destruction, embodied in this scene....

The desert’s silence held ancient whispers

Dry bones bleached in the sun

Tumbleweeds skittered down the hills.

The desert knew.

As night fell the whispers grew louder

Hungry coyotes joined in

Until the silence was deafening.

The desert knew.

It gathered the sand into a devilish embrace

And threw its whispers into space

Glittering into the universe.

The desert knew....

Why does a monster need an umbrella? How can rain harm him? It’s a bit ridiculous when you think about it really, but here he is, grinning like an obsequious madman, huddled under a bumbershoot.

Perhaps he’s trying to look less threatening. “Hi, don’t mind me. I’m just like you—don’t like getting wet.” And then when you get closer, he’ll pounce, tearing your skin with his claws. Or conversely, m...

Petals fall away

Cover the ground with heaven

Apple branch is bare...