desert

november 21, 2008

 
Parted, we relearn how to live,
all the basic involuntary processes,
drinking like camels,
breathing like whales —
a gasp —
then back into the endless sounding depths.
Now I am afraid,
the desert creature who knows the rain will come,
lysing all her learned patterns,
floating her away on the tide.
Or, worse, that it will come
and go
with nothing monumental occurring.
The desert thing curls in her nest,
bright with trinkets,
sweet with scraps of you,
hiding in fear from that rare seasonal dawn,
and longs to dissolve.