Rain Dance

rain dance 

bird becomes 

tree 

becomes 

wood 

for kindling

we dance for 

rain 

and fly in 

fear

to dampen the

fires 

of need with

prayer. 

It was a piece of wood I found along a dirt road in the once beautiful, but now deadly dry hills of Central Texas last month.  To me it looked like a bird.  Birds, I'm told, are quite scarce in that part of the country these days, due to drought and dwindling food sources.  So I picked it up and saved it.  I held it up with one hand to the dusk sky as if to make it fly, and took pictures with the other hand.  There's really nothing else one can do... 

Poem © 2011 R. Burnett Baker 

Photo© 2011 R. Burnett Baker 

Photo taken by R. Baker at Lake Buchanan, Texas, October 2011.