The moon is warm tonight, not breeze
\nenough to stir the vanes of the wind mills
\ngrouped in groves of their own out beyond
\nthe manicured lawns and stands of palms
\nwhich ring this landscaped spa oasis.<\/p>\n
I take them first as sunflowers basking
\nin a pewter glow, swinging toward
\nnot light but the slightest waft, their roots
\nseeking the moisture said to seep along
\nthe fault deep under this parched basin.<\/p>\n
Then before me there prances among
\nthe baobabs on the dessicated bed
\nof some Lake Chad\u00a0a herd of giraffes,
\ntheir graceful gait stirring flocks up into
\nfluttering flight,\u00a0the piebald quilts of their<\/p>\n
dappled hides furling like ships\u2019 sails,
\nspangles on water where there is none.
\nAs they lope, they dream of other giraffes
\ninscrutable dreams I can never know
\neven as vaguely as I know my own.<\/p>\n
Today you looked especially sad, pale
\narms clasped to your calves. Hush<\/i>, I said.
\nNo tears out here! Stop believing in rain!
\n<\/i>Imagine instead flowers as giraffes, baobabs
\nas tumbleweeds perched atop thick stalks.<\/p>\n
***
\nThe San Andreas Fault lies beneath San Gorgonio Pass, which leads from the L.A. basin to the valley in front of Desert Hot Springs. One of the deepest gulches in the contiguous U.S. states, it hosts a vast wind farm. My poem echos Nikolai Gumilev’s “Giraffes” but is not a translation of it, as you can see at http:\/\/max.mmlc.northwestern.edu\/mdenner\/Demo\/texts\/giraf.html.\u00a0Thanks to E.K. for her 1984 gloss of the Russian, the learning of which this poem in the original alone would have made worth the while.<\/i><\/p>\n
Here are\u00a0<\/em>the giraffes at morning under San Jack, at 10,834 feet \/ 3,302 m a subpeak of San Gorgonio at 11,503 \/ 3,506 m.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"Giraffes](\"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Giraffes-under-San-Jack.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n