NATURAL SELECTION

NATURAL SELECTION
—from Maggie Anderson's workshop

Straddling a bridge of indecision

I face two paths, two beds of the same stream

one runs hot, the other is cold.

California Fan Palm is rooted deep into the fault

and grows as close as it can to the fire

where boiling water burbles out of the earth

while stinging nettles of the northern latitudes

lean into the perpetual shade on the cold bank

and remembers an age of ice and perpetual winter

the willow guards both sides of the bridge

but the datura of oblivion chooses

the wash of the desert wadi as its dream

Maybe I should seek its counsel or go mad

should I stay or go? 

A decade or two and then what?

I test each stream with my feet

my left foot in the cool creek bed

the other dips into hot water

but the voices of both streams gurgle in unison

they offer no solace, no sage advice

nor do they drown the stinging words.

The moment of change is the only poem.

Maureen Hurley 9/7/2007 

Warner Springs Ranch

Poem published in Memories of Southern California: Poetic Recollections, Four Feathers Press, Don Campbell, Editor, 2022