Scorpions crawl
Suck moisture
From your skin’s pores
Leaving a salt oasis
Mauled by the Sonora storm
Pesticides peel
Monsoon-drowned
Saguaros and Joshua’s trees
From mud-maimed roots
And stream-strewn pebbles
Adobe brick
Mud flats
Define sand hills
Seeping into
The Colorado River’s jaws
Dry stucco dust
Beige plaster and rebar
Redeems this sand swamp
From the eternal riptide
Of the canyon sea
—
William Gribbin is a Senior attending Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, Virginia. His poems include themes of political satire, human relations, and nature. “Song of the Dry River” explores human impact on the environment through urban sprawl, specifically in desert areas with limited natural resources necessary for human survival.
