Poem: Desert Wind

I

Words fall upon my
soul as meaningless
wind blowing on desert rock.

II

Man lifted his eyes
to the stars, and contrived time.
He reads Orion,
looks as far as Earendel,
yet he cannot seek
what he strives to share.

III

August twenty-seventeen.
Sicily sunset—
I clutched the burning light close
On this cold, dry earth—
wrap it, arrange it,
unhand it.
Come, you who commune
through the voiceless page:
Be still, and behold the dust.

IV

The jade empress weaves her silk
in her emerald kingdom.
She inherited the earth as ordained by heaven
until the zephyr blew
from underneath
and his exoskeleton enters.
They grow inside what is not hers
and nurse them when they come forth
until finally she is eaten
and the stars and the seasons return.
The wind blows upon the desert rock
and shakes the dust until it falls.

V

The desert wind blows
on our empty souls
and shakes us until we fall.

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