The desert surrounds me,
Stretching to every horizon,
Cracked and dry with age,
Flat and featureless
But for scattered, fibrous plants
Which with rare tenacity
Cling to the rugged earth.
I wander with the wind
That stirs up the placid dust,
My feet leave lonely prints
In the broken clay sand
While my thoughts soar free,
Leaving no trace behind.
Clouds cautiously steal
Across the bright blue sky,
Obscuring the cruel sun,
And shadowing the desert below.
Thunder beats a slow cadence
Hesitant rain begins to fall.
The parched sand is darkened
The heavy-hearted dust no longer lifts
The rain gains strength, battering the ground
Until brown rivers run across the land,
Through small sand valleys,
And into clear puddle-lakes.
The noise above wakes brown seeds below,
Green heads push through the earth,
Leafy embryos uncurl
To taste the air for the first time
After lying beneath the sea of sand
For countless dormant years.
I cross the flowering sand,
The water on my tired face,
And my measured steps grow random
My heart’s tempo quickens
With life, I run over the desert,
Bare toes churning the wet sand
As the clouds unwillingly retreat,
Relinquishing the desert to the sun once more.
Behind me lie my footprints,
Filled with clear rain water,
Their rippling surfaces reflect the sky
The sun, the clouds, and the blue
The shifting light of the breaking storm.
I liked the way you talked a little about yourself at the beginning of the poem, then continued with the description, and came back to yourself at the end. Loved it. Keep writing.
