Two rainfalls within a fortnight and the heartbeat of the Llano Estacado quickens. Normally azure New Mexico skies are a deeper blue. Lark song embodies the general feeling of relief in the face of challenges from months without rain.
Across the prairie, ambitious twinkles of bright eyes dot sage green carpets of Woolly False Nightshade. Incidental clusters of Siberian Elm build green mansions to provide travelers respite amid the hot and dusty panorama. Cane Cholla eagerly stretch purple-fringed flower buds towards the heavens. Within a week they will proudly introduce their pink-clad debutants into the prairie spring cotillion.
On the other hand, scattered across the red countenance of the Llano lie silent witnesses to the unforgiving climate of the high plains. Bleached bones shape intriguing windows into the afterlife of erstwhile denizens.
Meanwhile yucca continue their reign as lanterns of hope for bountiful morrows. My shadow lingers briefly among them and raises a lámpara de la esperanza to salute the small victories in the daily struggles for survival on the Llano Estacado plain.
By late afternoon thunderstorms billow briefly and swallow horizons in finespun veils of water droplets eager to fulfill their earthbound destiny. The smell of rain drifts across the parched prairie. Then reality takes hold--another near miss.
© Ilija Lukić 2012
On the other hand, scattered across the red countenance of the Llano lie silent witnesses to the unforgiving climate of the high plains. Bleached bones shape intriguing windows into the afterlife of erstwhile denizens.
Meanwhile yucca continue their reign as lanterns of hope for bountiful morrows. My shadow lingers briefly among them and raises a lámpara de la esperanza to salute the small victories in the daily struggles for survival on the Llano Estacado plain.
By late afternoon thunderstorms billow briefly and swallow horizons in finespun veils of water droplets eager to fulfill their earthbound destiny. The smell of rain drifts across the parched prairie. Then reality takes hold--another near miss.
© Ilija Lukić 2012
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| Lámpara De La Esperanza (El Llanero) |
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| (unidentified) |
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| Bright Eyes (Woolly False Nightshade) |
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Window To The Afterlife
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| Lanterns Of Hope (Cooper) |
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| Los Cuatro Mosqueteros (yucca glauca) |
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| Cholla Debutants (cylindropuntia imbricata) |
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| Silent Witness |
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| Siberian Elm Shelter (Cooper) |
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| Green Mansion (Cooper) |
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| Smell Of Rain (yucca campestris) |
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