Sarcastic lacy branches drenched in heat.                                                                       
produce inferior vegetation no matter how
hard the tree tries.
Impoverished brown leaves desiccated and
wrinkled before their time survive by
curling into a crevice and waiting for the
rains to come down.
Cotyledons dying before their stored
nutrition can nurture true leaves.
There is a beauty in this misery.
Dry brown twigs dance in silvery dust
blown below wind-shredded clouds.
Fragile beauty survives in simplicity and
lack of ornamentation.
Life trickles up stems and trunks
exhausted but determined.


© by Judy Drechsler.
Used with the author’s permission.