The day before yesterday, the Texas Hills received their first rainfall in a couple of months! The figures for San Antonio look grim: July=0″. June=.79″. May 1.14″ We are, as are many, suffering through another drought!

Yesterday, I bought a rain barrel and it was delivered today. Finally. It holds 100 gallons. That won’t last long, but it’s a start. I’m still campaigning for the gutters you find in this poem.

This poem, first published in Voice de la Luna, Vol. 9 #3, May, 2017, p. 30, is included in my newest collection of poems, of failure & faith (Kelsay Books, 2023). If you haven’t ordered your copy, please do! (link above)

Please also check out Voices de la Luna, a San Antonio quarterly magazine of arts and literature, and subscribe here!

image courtesy of Soshanah via Creative Commons.  Rights reserved.

catchment system


thoughts dangle

hang 

from the eaves

need

untangling

these:
stacked in corners
in cabinets
on pages
on shelves

—a life
in leaflets

what to do
with what doesn’t’

have place

      ~

that transistor radio
we keep in the drawer
in case of nuclear war

—all those batteries

a glossy ad 
for gutters

we’ve never had

      ~

thirty years
—the gush

ducked under
gallons      pouring

off the eaves

water

we could have 

saved

but didn’t

      ~

we needed:

designer lincoln
sprinkler system
st. augustine

green

granite countertops
slate floors
swimming pool

a catchment system
that never happened

or did it

      ~

when batteries die
transistors desist

perhaps:

merciful sky

we’ll shower 
under the gush

mouths      wide open

drinking

while we can

~(c) d. ellis phelps