Awaken

Elisha Holt

Night snake in a hidden spring
ring of fan palms a dark oasis

the cholla’s gold flowering
among the cold volcanoes

honey mesquite,
              coyote willow

a pair of roadrunners unleash
in the dawn
bees bow toward the ripening
sun

wings gather rays
the wind and the song of the cactus wren

the hummingbird’s beak
the ink tongue of the sphinx moth
tattoo coyote calls

puma’s silhouette

on the web of our wet
                 bodies

You and I
in the Perseids
                 gleam
alive we
tangle in the raw weeds