Images of the Desert (Dinosaur V)

(Note: A well-meant college painting instructor disliked my words & painting together...since "the painting should tell the story alone." A well-meant college poetry instructor disliked my words & painting together...since "the poetry should tell the story alone." Not in the exact words, but the exact meaning. This was a while ago...Well. Sometimes I agree. But images and words combined can tell a lovely story too...)

Images of the Desert.

The trees are leafless. Sagebrush gray.

Dry white snow covering the swirling rock layers

with an impossibly azure sky

backdrop.

Boots coated with viscous red clay

mud. Walking up the steep sandstone with

peeling top layers like cracking

egg shell.

Still. Like a black and white still—

dreaming shocking bright multicolor. and

subtle movement.

a bowed juniper

rooted above ground. Pale lavender

berries tinted with

melting ice.

And green buds appear. Cactus

bloom prickly and yellow.

Apricot blossoms appear a white and pink

parade amid the gray brush.

Snow melted. Ice melted. Mud dry.