Tobi Alfier

White Spur Deluge

West Texas night: storm clouds roil,

hex the moon silent. These storms

move quickly, pummel the land in their wake.

Chicks are blown from nests.

Come day, starlings will steal those shattered strands, raise

their young on the marl of bone and twig.

An old truck parked under a cottonwood tree,

blood red, oxidized, long forgotten and pocked

by sap dropped along

the windshield, animals seeking shelter

on the relics of old leather seats,

a stolen radio’s dangling cables.

West Texas storms urge even the toughest

to rethink their destinations, ride like lightning

to their distances, their porch lights already flickered dark.

Tobi Alfier is a five-time Pushcart nominee and a Best of the Net nominee.  Her most current chapbooks are “The Coincidence of Castles” from Glass Lyre Press, and “Romance and Rust” from Blue Horse Press. Her collaborative full-length collection, “The Color of Forgiveness”, is available from Mojave River Press. She is the co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.sprreview.com).