Summer Wetting Poem by Duane L. Herrmann

The heat had been forever:
constant oven-wind
shriveled leaves and trees.

Cemented soil cracked
in canyons reaching deep
into the tortured earth.

No rain for more than weeks;
moisture only dimly
a faint and fragrant memory.

Suddenly from far away
echoed muffled rumblings,
and low dark clouds.

Salvation seemed too true
to suspend parched lips
or slack dry skin.

Eyes watched with hope and wonder
as clouds relieved the sky
from the searing sun.

A miraculous wall of wet
advanced across the fields
and, suddenly, was here.

God was good again.
Steady showering filled
pores and cracks and leaves.

The crops and life and animals
were saved. The family
would survive another year.