Desert Mural

Morning yawns and stretches as she
puts her feet on the warm desert floor.
When she stands and takes her first
step into the new day, her smile
penetrates the lingering darkness.

Young wrens peek from their saguaro homes,
already mindful of the desert's dangers.  A pair
of Harris hawks gracefully glide in
widening circles, keen to spot the
slightest movement below.  In the
distance, perhaps just beyond the
clump of Prickly Pear cactus on the
ridge, coyotes talk to each other
in high-pitched squeals.  They have
the scent.  The rabbit's time is
limited.

Doves, watching the unfolding drama
from the tallest arm of a deep green
saguaro, add their unique song to the
coyotes' now guttural growl.  As if on
cue, two green-tinted lizards lumber
across partially exposed rocks, searching
for the perfect sunning spot.  Under a 
low Brittle Bush, a quail family gathers
to make a run for the next safe haven
twenty feet away.  Mom and Dad will
quickly lead the ten chicks, each about two
inches tall, across the exposed sand
to avoid predators in the air and
on the ground.

The living desert responds to the day's invitation
in a beautiful mural, vast and vigorous.

History and future are exposed in this
grain-sized patch of creation resting
on a spinning ball floating through a
universe that is, itself, an
unnumbered member 
of an unsolvable
mystery.