Nighttime...

Nighttime…

Nighttime, I am alone

In the desert,

Moon, sand, stars,

My only companions.

Clouds have forsaken this land.

Distant tribes, the cirrus and the cumulus,

Pasture elsewhere.

The sky, a wanderer, has left his staff behind.

Knees lower to kiss the dirt floor,

Heels press into haunches,

No pain. The outside world,

Persistent as foraging field mice,

Blinks confusedly at the present.

Disavowing the past,

History stands behind

A tall black rostrum.

Wrestling with the future,

A fugitive struggles, trapped by

Four walls in a dream.

Inside this cave,

Bread, water, salt

Keep me alive. The wind

Feeds my spirit.

Desert plant at night