Desert Remedy

Baked breaths, unseen vapors
Exhale the dreams that burn away today.
Submerged in sparseness I'm empty of my failures
with room to admit defeat

Tans and greys they fade
and brighten with the sun the distant mountains tint.
Blues and blacks and deepest reds
play the western crags of home.
Eastern mountains new to me
take back from me my pain.

And in the distance arthritic men,
stand hunched in solitary groups
They raise their wings and fly away
to nests unseen at dark.
One by one the others appear;
vinegaroons acetic,
small, articulate birds,
running lizards comedic.

A million grains of brightness
Leave me solitaire no more.
I drown in points of light.
The smear of stars across the sky,
the scattered points of constellations.
My mother luna holds my heart
and heals my soul this night.

Sleeping dog beside me
breathes heavy on my arm
and focuses my breath as well
our breaths are moist and warm
The hurt dismissed with rise and fall
I smell my future now.

Dawn coalesces all the night
into burning sun and heat
that bakes the last of pain from me
Gives my future back to me.

kimmarie february 1999