Bisbee Storm at 5,500 Feet

The monsoon gathers itself
and broods for days. Scorpion winds

lurk behind mountains: strike
without warning: lightning a curled tail,
filled with furious venom.

Heavy moisture, pent-up rage
towards eternal dust and brightness.
Gusts sweep brooms across the desert,
clear swaths for additional rain.

And then it comes: a barrage
like the wrath of a million cicadas,
endless chatter of empty artillery
as gravel pings against stucco.

Temperature drops thirty degrees
in ten minutes, rises again
half an hour later. Steam and creosote.
Aroma rises, hangs in mid-air:

vanishes. Sun returns its
relentless beam, focused straight
into the center of my eyeballs,
as the rain rolls backwards
to the other side of the border.

Leah Mueller is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Bisbee, Arizona. Her most recent books, Misguided Behavior, Tales of Poor Life Choices , Death and Heartbreak, and Cocktails at Denny's were released in 2019. Leah’s work appears in Midway Journal, Citron Review, The Spectacle, Miracle Monocle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and elsewhere. Her essay "Firebrand, The Radical Life and Times of Annie Besant" appears in the book, Fierce, Essays By and About Dauntless Women which placed first in the non-fiction division of the 2019 Publisher's Weekly Booklife contest.