Non-rain comes to Arizona...

The feel in the air was electrifying, the tension in her body, unbearable. Summer-hot in Arizona. Late Spring’s crafty camouflage inspired ambivalence. With Summer comes the Monsoon season, a release from endless days of heat-stroked skies. In theory.

Lizards wagged their tails knowingly; dancing winds stirred up echoes of future delight. Regardless of Nature’s promises, she began hosing drooping flowers, sending her vibrating need into the powdery earth. A dust devil playfully choked her hopes with demonic fervor. She paused in her ministering.

A muted roar of rushing, windy invitation started the palm fronds wickedly clapping their approval. The eyes of lethargic cats brightened. Desert fuzz was ripped from bushes and smattered into her eyes and mouth; flower heads lifted a fraction in hushed prayer.

She felt her nerves strum and twang; her intensity was suffocating with arid yearning. Shadowed clouds flirted with upturned eyes, chuckled thunderously in knowing anticipation, then fled with unfulfilled avowals.

And, as the allegorical storm eluded her grasp, she fractured with painful betrayal.

Erin Elizabeth Kelly-Moen
© Copyright 5/16/04