Witches New Year
by Tsultrim Allione

I awoke to slate gray
covering everything
The world disappearing into mist
As the sky lightened
Haze settled into the valleys
Dragons snaking over sagebrush, arroyos and the old pinon trees
A lone cow, left behind in fall roundup,
bellows
Ekajati Peak brown now
Fall colors leached out by night rain
Feed spring seeds
Leaves flattened to ground
Drained opaque, like clothes washed too many times
More candles need to be lit
As we bear down into witches New Year
The dead are
calling
the skeletal pronged oaks
tapping against each other
like old ladies at the piano
who have forgotten the tune.

 

 

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