Desert Flowers (It Was Enough)
It was enough rain to make impassable
the formerly hardpacked dirt road.
It was enough rain that puddles formed
in the clay imprints of our footsteps.
It was enough rain to drip off the dense juniper branches
The ones we thought would protect
the chairs from getting wet.
It was enough rain to coat the distant mountains in a white, lacy vestige of winter.
It was enough rain to see sheets of it coming
First in walking,
then biking,
then driving
distance.
It was enough rain to bring us to a standstill,
the plans for the day sinking into the murky bottoms of the puddles.
It was enough rain to birth flowers in the desert,
ahead
of
schedule.
It was enough rain to give up on cleanliness of shoes, then socks, then anything within splashing distance of the ground.
It was enough rain to require
only stillness
only rest.
It was enough rain for a reset of all the living things
beneath my feet…
…within my skin, and flowing across the sagebrush desert.