This winter weather isn’t normal here.
I state that not to argue or complain.
The other coast, the other hemisphere
have got it worse, but we’re bereft of rain.
The squirrels race around like early spring.
Mid-January hummingbirds abound.
Oxalis freckles lawns and sparrows sing
at azure skies from desiccated ground.

I’ve had a happy life, and this reverse
does not result from horoscope or luck.
Perversion of our climate is the curse
of slash-and-burn for profit. What the fuck
was in the hearts, the minds of rich and strong,
who met the sphinx and heard the riddle wrong?