There Was a River

Once, there was a river
Whose annual flood
Swept the banks clean
Tore out old vegetation
And left wide beaches
And a rich, fertile soil.

Today my banks are overgrown
Into huge, speculative derivatives
I can no longer keep track of
Nor breathe among.
My seeds no longer sprout
For the very light of the sun
Fails to reach them.
The soil itself is poisoned
By the saline detritus
Of some noxious
invasive specie
That my floods
Once regulated.

I am told the dam is for the best
It stores the water in good years
So it does not go to waste.
And it provides electricity
To the many who need it.

Enough, yes, still flows to keep hope alive downstream.
Every few years a knob is turned
A mirage of hope and change
Threatens to reach us.
This barrel cactus has caught some of it
I wet my lips, distastefully
Swallowing its bitter promise
That I may live a little longer.

I see a lot of water being stored
For someone.
But none has reached the sea
Since 1998.
I see gringos on powerboats
Entertaining an ever multiplying hoard
While 1.3 million acre feet a year
Evaporate in the desert sun.

I see pale faces from Chicago and New York
Move to Phoenix
And Tuscon, Arizona
For a life in my beautiful desert.
With 10 hours a day of air conditioning
Powered by this dam
And the coal
From my job-hungry
Sacred mesas.

May your air conditioning rattle
Incessantly.

No dam lasts forever.
200,000 years ago the earth itself opened up
Spilling its fire
And blocking the channel.
Remnants line the canyon wall
Below which the river
Now rages past.
Victorious.
No dam lasts forever.

My burrow is deep
Into the shrinking water table
I wait for the flood that you cannot stop.
The flood that scours banks
Politicians
Powerboats
Dams
Gringos
Phoenix.
A flood that is red-

Colorado
With the blood of Tyrants and Patriots.