The Tucson Loop On The Second Sunday Morning In August

The air is still
Hot and dry
The sky is mottled
With china-white
And light touches of
Payne’s gray
Overhead
Light strokes of
White in the west
Mostly gray in
The eastern sky
Like it might rain
But I doubt it

A few joggers and
Walkers strolling
The lanes
Not many bikes yet

A lone Coyote
Standing statuesque
In the dry riverbed
Eyes us carefully
As we roll by
On the bank above

A rattlesnake
In the middle of
The path causes
Me to swerve
To warn on-comers
Of that ‘fancy-dan’
In their path

Halfway home
The sun breaks out
Burns off what little
Energy I had left
Returning from
Silverbell Lake
Near the
Road to nowhere

Homeward bound
Another Coyote
Stalks across the path
Heads down the
Riverbank just before
The Starr Pass
Underpass

Home at last
Popsicle done
Heading for a
Nap

–LE – 8/10/25