Waiting

Road falls south through red dirt unbroken
till desert rises on the edge of it.
Nothing holds it down but miles of irrigation.
Still, tractors stir cyclones of dust that turn
and turn and scatter to desert that would
meet them here if the water ran out.

Cotton lies abandoned like snow where it fell
at harvest time, white under blue pale
with the patience of a desert waiting
for the wells to run dry.

Here and there a house tumbles down into a field
but for every one there is a church standing
and not a sign of Jesus in this place
that does not end with an exclamation.
© Steven Schroeder

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