Every season on the Llano Estacado inspires exaltation of its beauty and respect for the survival mechanisms of its flora and hunting skills of its reptilians. Brief summer showers stir dormant life forces. They leave telltale crusts and mud shards where the rain water pools and quickly evaporates under the onslaught of relentless prairie winds and afternoon heat. My imagination turns the terra cotta arrays of dried mud into broken clay pottery and sunburned sheets of Armadillo skin.
Most of the open prairie remains in the grip of drought. I crave a daily fix of prairie color. The only remedies for my yearning are pockets of thriving vegetation along ranch road depressions and moist remnants of ephemeral pools. Cooper has his own agenda. He answers prairie dog challenges to his presence with brief, half-hearted dashes in their direction. One hundred yards down a cattle trail, he alerts on activity in the prairie grasses. On closer look I find a Desert Kingsnake coiled around a Horned Lizard. The glossy black constrictor adorned with yellow dorsal bands is in the process of swallowing its prey head first.
© Ilija Lukić 2011
 |
Desert Kingsnake
|
 |
Gaillardia Exposé
|
 |
Corazón De Oro
|
 |
Fire Wheels
|
 |
Clay Shards
|
 |
Fetid Marigold
|
 |
Rueda Dorada
|
 |
Armadillo Skin
|
 |
Prickly Potato Patch
|
 |
Summer Rain
|
No comments:
Post a Comment