Those of us involved in agriculture are always in tune with weather. The first thing I do each morning is look out the window to see what the weather is doing, and I do a personal check a couple of times a night, now that we have a new puppy. I dislike staying in hotels because you have to keep the curtains closed, but they are open a crack as soon as the light goes out.
So, it’s natural that ranchers and farmers spend a lot of January wondering if we will have enough moisture, whether there will be a blizzard during calving, and how often we will be snowed in.
Western Nebraska has been in drought mode for several months now. Who would have believed that, when it rained day and night for the spring months of 2020? Actually, I would, because in the West we are always about two weeks from a drought. I dislike snow but we needed this white Christmas, even though the moisture content was slight.
I know some of you were hoping that poetry class was over, but I promised to torture you for a year, and since we didn’t start until October, you still have to endure it for another few months. Here’s one out of the files from quite a while back, which just proves that weather worries come and go. It’s a cycle, and maybe we needn’t get so panicky about whatever is happening on any given day.
January Jitters
Bad medicine’s brewing today.
You can almost see it drift
down the valley like smoke
on the balmy breath of an ill wind,
too warm for anybody’s good.
Buzzards circle and soar,
letting it lift them lazily into
the brilliant blue above
before hunkering down to sulk
on sun burnished bales of hay.
Weathermen warily warn of
extended drought, while dust devils
dance wildly across a dry lake bed.
Worry wrinkles on Ma Nature’s face
match the ones on mine. Both of us
brace for battle with demons of dread
that guard the door of 2004.