Saving Water
- Most of the water on earth is kept in rocks. Is rocks. Chemically different. Changeable, released over eons.
- Before the tide turns, in front of me, a heron stabs a fingerling. Gulps it, wriggling.
- Water moves with the moon, and gentle slips of earth, plates balanced below the frantic soil.
- Someone is burning something in the hills.
- On the phone, the California State Water Agency rebate clerk is impatient. Why haven’t you finished replacing your lawn? I lie: Money. Then the truth: And my mother has been dying.
- Drip irrigation cannot replenish the aquifer.
- Well, she says, when do you expect to be done?
- The question I want to ask my mother.
- Driftwood marks a waterline. Premeditated. Unsigned by the moon.
- The Water Teacher takes a sip, listens.
Header photo by TamasV, courtesy Shutterstock. Photo of Alison Mandaville by Wendy Call.