The Desert Edge (Part One)
The desert edge lies on the fringe of three worlds
And under this one sun I sit alone with one crow for company
Behind my worn down shack of lack lustre dreams
Rises to the horizon a jungle of Heaven’s Gate a lush and verdant wonder
To the right hand of my chair thunders the Blue Divide
Chill blue seas like the unrelenting hammer of a Dwarven God
It beats the rocks beneath the cliff with a lulling weary rhythm
That echo of the searing fire baking the earth on the left of my smile
Where the rocks steam in pain and crack beneath the weight they carry
Where the sands burn like coal in that desert forge
I tilted my head to the bright blue sky with its rising pastel hues
Listening to the murmurs across my back of Heaven’s Gate and her leaves
Sighing of the Blue Divide with her sweet breath rolling in with her thunder
Feeling the wafting of warmth billow over me from the desert forge
I sat as I have from the death of my youth to this the twilight of my days
It was a hot and sundering day, chill like no other before it thought my friend the crow
And he was right for it was a day of change, a day of foreshadows deep
On came a wanderer from lands that I have not travelled only visited
Bringing with him memories of the trails I have wrought through my own life
In brief glimpses I did sojourn into the emerald vault of Heaven’s Gate
Barely through the vines that choke the border of that world I strove in my search
And there beyond the wall I fell upon a path of soft grass damp with life
But I was not alone under the shadowy sunlight filtering down through the leaves
I could hear them moving all around me in the gloomy depths of the jungle
What they were I never knew, never caught sight of them completely
I only heard in horrified rapture their howling, their cackling echoes in the trees
They knew I was there though I could not see them they knew I was there
A stranger in their world, perhaps they thought me an invader, an interloper
So it was they chased me with screams and wailing cries like a thousand jackals
Ran me down biting the shadow of my heels as I ran blindly back, back, back to the edge
Stumbling I found myself broken down having past beyond the great barrier of vines
Those silent and vigilant protectors holding within their grasp a promise
Copyright © Neal Freeland | Year Posted 2008
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