Not much grows here if you don’t water.
Things with spines generally do well.
Little grasses that spring up and flower quickly
after a July monsoon go dormant again
without notice. Keep an eye, and a hose,
on a small patch of ground, though,
and you can make a tiny oasis. This Sunday
we mark forty years together, and I am thinking
about the people who said we wouldn’t make it.
I will never talk you into seeing the world
the way I do, although for some reason I will also
never give up trying. Maybe that’s the secret.
Anyway, we have managed between us to produce
some interesting paintings, a sweet collection
of dresses. Happy offspring, lovely meals.
The apricots on the tree out front are ripening
in technicolor. The whole neighborhood is noticing.