Warm sun on my face
Desert breeze whisking my skin
Southwestern summer
The desert knows no seasons
For it is its own master
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Warm sun on my face
Desert breeze whisking my skin
Southwestern summer
The desert knows no seasons
For it is its own master
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Summer upon us
The desert knows no seasons
With winter’s goodbye
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Rains cascade from the mountaintop
So fluid in its dance of desperation
Tumbling over granite shards
Impregnating the seed of the dormant bride
Soon she will welcome her offspring
Colorful and joyous
Springing from crack and crevice
To play amongst the warmth of the winds
Her groom–
Disappearing ever downward
Seeks slumber in the bed below
Having succumbed to destiny
Coyote and cacti feed from his humble remains
Quenching their arid thirst
Until at once
…He is no more
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Emperor sun reigns
Sculpting earth to hells vision
Turning flesh to bone
Coronated in heaven
As master of this domain
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
The crimson sky fumes with the rage of desert summer,
Turning springs flowers of gold and lavender to tawny dust.
Scorpion and rattler laze in awe,
Cherishing the warmth of the arid sun.
Cacti dot the plains, green and angry,
Breaking the monotony of the monochrome landscape.
Beneath even the most lovely of spouts lays a heart of bramble,
Drawing first blood from all but the sturdiest patron.
Lonesome ballads of the song dog eclipse the dark silence,
Howling teardrops rain upon the parched surface.
Rife with dwellers only dreamt of in nightmares,
Exotic, ghoulish, yet beautiful,
A vista both barren and thriving beckons.
Calling the adventurous to pay homage,
Genuflecting in respect to this alien canvas.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
By D. R. DiFrancesco
~~~~~
The late fall sky
Bathed in tangerine and magenta
Fragrance of Palo Verde and Cottonwood fills the air
Serenity cloaks the towering granite peaks
Wrapping them in shades of purple and gold
Exalting their millennial majesty
The coyote’s bay
Floating effortlessly through the canyons
They share their lonesome longing song
Adorned as if otherworldly
Cacti and the gnarled Joshua tree dot the desolate Sonoran desert
Prickly and unpretentious in their beauty
The landscape ruled by snake and scorpion
Rattle of the tail and venomous sting, relics of the deadly precipice
The destiny awaiting the oblivious visitor
Rain devoid xeriscape
Designed by the marvelous hand of nature
Wondrous in it’s simplicity and complexity
Man could not have created such a miraculous wonder
For our nature is to destroy
Still the creator left flawed beings as the keepers
To cherish and protect his prized ecru jewel.
By D. R. DiFrancesco
Touching heaven with finger-like peaks
Bathed in purple and black
Crags and fissures a sign of her violent past
Yet in these chiseled features there is peace
Calm in her desolation
Joy in her solitude
Rains come, seldom, brief and miniscule
Life giving none-the-less
Colors erupt skyward from cracks and crevasses
Green, yellow, orange, and purple
Clothing fit for a queen
Floral draped plains bow at her feet
Only the finest for such a star
Sierra Estrella her name
But the cape once so lovely abandons her
Leaving her naked, hard, and rough
No less beautiful in the raw
Standing tall, she resumes her watch
Desert, now void of an audience unfurls
Bowing blindly to her majesty
Hawks and buzzards her only court
Left to marvel at her magnificence
Her strength, her beauty, her wonder.
The Sierra Estrella Mountain range (estrella in spanish is “star”) is located southwest of Phoenix Arizona. My home looks over these mountains and in the years that I have lived here, I have never gotten tired of looking at them.
By D. DiFrancesco
God’s of granite rise to meet it
Hawks and buzzards scream their cries
Parched and cracking earth crumbles bit by bit.
Yet life does thrive in this barren wasteland
Angry flora and fauna its solemn masters
Brown and tan the palette at hand
Landscape the pupil, sun the headmaster.
Cliff dwellings and hieroglyphs call home this domain
Once proud inhabitants have faded and gone
Arachnids and echoes are all that remain
Of an era that is all but bygone.
Still man insists on taming the unattainable
Its lifeblood rerouted and dammed
For cities and towns, its inhabitants expendable
The resultant effects unplanned.
Yet with all the scrub and cactus and scorpion
Its peace and beauty abound
The mountains and valleys elicit euphoria
No greater gift can be found.
Try as we might to alter its reality
The eagle keeps watch over this land
Man and machine try to prove natures frailty
But nature does refuse their demand.
As the celestial heat wave succumbs to twilight
Nocturnal denizens hiss and bay
Under constellations hunters commence the fight
For the strong to live another day.
With each days pass the circle unbroken
The animal and land meld into one
Of mountains and desert, lore has been spoken
In God’s own will be done.