Pumping Station in the Desert

By Patty Willis

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Illustration by Patty Willis

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​Be with me!

Fill my heart with your transfiguring love
that can turn death into life
illness to wholeness
hatred to loving kindness
my sad heart into a pumping station 
in the desert

invisible until sedans of travelers
crown the hill.
They work in silence
as if speaking would disturb
the spell, the heavy, hot air
of a summer night--
the neon sign that flashes 
like an answer to prayers.

The car wash free to
customers draining away
the layer of silt 
into the roadside ditches of 
spiny asparagus, feeding the watercress
and giving travelers ease.

They ride off ready
for the next leg--promising themselves
to pay attention--windows down
harsh air turned into shelter.

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Rev. Patty Willis is a minister, writer, artist and translator based in Arizona (US). She has also been active in immigration justice and reconciliation between white settler descendants and indigenous people. 

'Pumping Station in the Desert' is part of a series entitled 'Psalms at Finisterre', which Patty began writing six years ago when she was mourning the loss of her parents in a car accident.