kigo, or season words,--"withered fields" for "all winter." Yes, it has rained all winter here in Northern California with scarcely a week pass by without some precipitation.
geophagia--the practice of eating earth; dirt eating.
Late on the night of January 10, 2017, I drove home in rain I seldom experienced before. It was so heavy, I barely saw the road and had to slow to twenty-five miles per hour as a long line of cars cautiously followed me along a cliff road above a rapidly filling reservoir.
When I reached a fork in the road at Pinole Valley Road and Alhambra Valley Road (the latter my usual route to work), I turned left toward home. Unbeknownst to me at the time, fifty feet from the fork in the road, Alhambra Valley Road had washed out from the pressure of the "overnight river." I knew something was amiss when I reached the lower portions of Pinole Creek. I got out of my car and watched from a pedestrian bridge as a "brown mudflow" surged within feet of topping the banks.
My haiku suite is a prequel to my previous haiku about me being unable to hear frogs on the banks of Pinole Creek after the flood surged through. Each haiku could be read separately, but collectively they tell a story that progresses from bad to worse. The waterways increase in size with each haiku--furrow, stream, creak, river, and finally a "brown mud flow."
I thank Michael (Grasshopper2) for suggesting the words "eat" and "swallow" in my last haiku. I used his suggestions here. I also thank rspoet for suggesting the use of the word "crest." My deep gratitude goes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which deepened, widened, and straightened Pinole Creek after the flood of 1958 left the town under a foot of water. However, nothing was done to the creek and bridges on the outskirts of town where the latest collapsed road occurred.
I took the photo and video. If safe, I may descend into the crater and take another picture and film from the creek's point of view.
