this is not a poem

By Will Falk

this is not a poem, really
it’s a prayer maybe
I’m trying to listen and
once hearing to write it all down

I’m listening for rain
in places like Anza Borrego
and Joshua Tree
in places inside and outside of me

and under the famous green tower
in North Park, San Diego
where I live wondering
just what holds any water anymore

there has been a long drought
it’s not a musical drought
it’s just everything is off-key

voices are a dry river bed
the clacks of angry stones
singing dry songs
as shaming as grandfather warnings

a seagull cries in the desert
an aged gull, snow white
odd here and stark
against the brown

only to see once more
the dancing of fish
and hear their fins’ soft melodies

this is not a poem, really
it’s a prayer maybe
I’m trying to listen
through personal droughts
hoping to be washed clean
by the ringing bells
in a soft moving stream