Archive of New Mexico Poetry – Elizabeth Searle Lamb
before firstlight
the wild plum blossons
whiten the dry ditch
from the dead tree
a santero carves St. Francis
there on the ditch bank
Ditch-Cleaning Day
the mayordomo.’s pickup
has a flat
half silted under
the dead puppy
after spring run-off
a white horse
drinks from the acequia
blossoming locust
ancient cottonwoods
drop their leaves in the acequia
September’s brittle wind
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to wake
this first morning
the dream
still hovering
nearby
if my hand
were transparent
I could catch it
and test it
for omens
but there is only
the dawn-sky
and two ravens,
frosted grasses
beside the acequia…
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About the Poet
Elizabeth Searle Lamb has lived beside the acequia since the 1970s. Her collected work, Across the Windharp, is just out from La Alameda Press.
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