In Arabian singsong, the dancer began
Searching for tempo in desert sands
Torso twisting and turning to the rhythm of time
With a toss of her head and a shake of her mane
Tambourines rang, spectators clapped
the dancer transformed, shot into his lap
Wriggling her belly and lighting his fire
she struggled to control her desire…
… At the end of the night, slumped over, frail, spent
too many years barely paying the rent
You do not need a riverbed to drown.
The drought is carried deep within the chest.
There is no water in this quiet room,
Yet sudden silence floods the empty lungs.
The drought is carried deep within the chest,
A cracked and ochre basin of the mind.
Yet sudden silence floods the empty lungs,
And absence brings a current of its own.
A cracked and ochre basin of the mind,
Where reaching for a memory builds a sea.
And absence brings a current of its own,
The sheer starvation rising like a tide.
Where reaching for a memory builds a sea,
You gasp for breath in perfectly dry air.
The sheer starvation rising like a tide,
The devastating weight of being alone.
You gasp for breath in perfectly dry air,
There is no water in this quiet room.
The devastating weight of being alone—
You do not need a riverbed to drown.
Onto the high desert of a low-browed world.
Lost in the me of their scratchy egos.
Doll-eyed souls raped by the gears of techno.
Between two mesquite limbs, the wind slings its cradle,
a slow sway rising from the sun-struck sand.
Warm desert air gathers like woven cloth,
lifting the body into a drifting, heat-soft lull.
Light flickers through thorn-shadow and dust-gold,
the world rocking in wide, breath-born stillness.
The Chihuahuan breeze loosens the grip of the day,
holding it in the wind’s quiet keeping across the desert’s spine.
the desert sky slipped into indigo,
coy and slow.
a single star blinked awake,
checking to see if
the desert was ready for company
a breeze wandered through the dunes
carrying the faint scent of mesquite
and something older~
a whisper of the land remembering its own stories.
The desert cools beneath a copper sky,
mesquite leaves tremble in the autumn air;
poppies remember spring but do not cry,
their silence glowing soft without fanfare.
Mesquite leaves tremble in the autumn air,
the mountains blush in rust and fading gold;
their silence glowing soft without fanfare,
a story whispered but never fully told.
The mountains blush in rust and fading gold,
the wind grows gentle, shedding summer’s blaze;
a story whispered but never fully told,
the desert shifts into its twilight phase.
The wind grows gentle, shedding summer’s blaze,
poppies remember spring but do not cry;
the desert shifts into its twilight phase,
the desert cools beneath a copper sky.
tumbleweeds blowing
across the wide-breathing dunes
sunlight bleaches time
glow
stirs,
quiet
spirals rise,
sun-tuned murmurs bloom,
shaping warm chromatic hushes,
petals are soft ciphers of radiant symmetry,
gathering sun gold light into one slow-turning, bright ring of living geometry.
dawn drifts in,
desert light loosens
dust-soft dreams
deep within~
a dry wind draws creation
down the quiet dunes
cascading silver
thunder awakens the dead
river rises up
heat
flows
through me,
stirring old
grief I thought was gone~
poppies blazing like fragile hope,
teaching my heart how broken places can bloom again
The desert sun ignites the day,
its brilliance urging me to rise;
old doubts dissolve along the way,
their shadows shrinking in my eyes.
Its brilliance urging me to rise,
I feel my pulse grow bold and clear;
their shadows shrinking in my eyes,
I step beyond the weight of fear.
I feel my pulse grow bold and clear,
the mountains bring strength to me;
I step beyond the weight of fear,
becoming who I’m meant to be.
The mountains bring strength to me,
old doubts dissolve along the way;
becoming who I’m meant to be~
the desert sun ignites the day.
My yard stands quietly in the sun,
Morning bones of adobe bright,
Measured shadows lean like questions,
Muted fences breathe warm dust,
Mesa winds hum through still air,
Memory settles in soft light,
Motionless heart of the desert.
w d q
i r u
n i i
d f e
t t
t s
h m
i a e
n c s
r a
s o
u s
n s
l
I t
g h
h e
t
Wind thinned sunlight drifts
across the quiet mesa.
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