In The Rut

[Achebe]

IN THE RUT

We looked in rose-colored mirrors and saw divining rods.  
Now though, that glass gone grain,
I only see sand. --- L1 and L2 are interesting, but there's a logic melt here. Divining rods are meant to help find water beneath the surface - often, of a dry riverbed. Your surprise at finding yourself in a dry riverbed is a surprise to me.

I see we are some dead river, bed without water, ---- a dead river bed will be without water, surely.
where coyotes sniff clay with no scent, ----- what is this supposed to mean? dry clay has no scent, fine. Are you still saying that the dead river has no water and is therefore dry? Clay is actually good. It means that there has been surface water in the past, and may be found underground, if you have your divining rods with you.
and smoke trees pretend at smoldering. ----- It escapes me as to why they would pretend to do so.

We are where a desperate buck bends I am not an expert on zoology, but I wouldn't associate the dry with the mating season. Does the buck personify your frustration? the vagueness is irritating.
in irreverent rut, ---- why irreverent? who's the reverence being withheld from?
and nothing more, save a map for tumbleweeds. -----the poem has ended, and I have no idea what I just read.

I couldn't make sense of this poem. It starts off passably, but  soon disintegrates into a pile of vague images from National Geographic TV shows.

EDIT: what the river bed and the search for water are supposed to symbolise is of secondary importance. If the metaphor does not make literal sense, its symbolic meaning is of lesser concern.