Path Along the Julian Wash

three crows sitting on the guardrail
eyeing us as we ride by, then
falling and somersaulting
into the void along the wash
squawking and chattering through
their aerial acrobatics

amidst an explosion of yellow
blossoms, desert marigolds,
greasewood, and brittlebush,
their mature heads bowing
in the breeze like flirtatious
Blackeyed Susans

interspersed with the sunglazed,
fluorescent peach and light
violet blossoms of Desert Mallow
shining out of the kelly and silver-green
void along the shoulders of
Tucson’s Julian Wash

–LE – 4/18/24