Evaporation

Life being so long
and all those relatives on the verge of death,
I did not notice I had counted on you
to continue your misery with me.

I cried myself dry
in that space between
your annoyance and silence
until I hardened like a salt crust
in a cracked desert valley,
paintbrush crimson
and exposed.

With life so long
and with so many lonely basins,
in rain I may find I dissolve
and flow into the deepest
to bake in the sun without you,
perhaps to the extent of evaporation.

By: MaryAnne Hafen

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MaryAnne Hafen is a conservationist with an affinity for desert plants. She lives on the edge of the Great Basin with an engineer, a misnomer cat, and too many houseplants. Her poetry has been published by Quarter Press and Querencia Press.