When in whispers they bow down,
Before me, and they close their eyes
Their minds, I kick them in their
Softest place.
And though they spit up blood
They insist on spewing honey.
And in majestic mourning
I turn away from business
And walk alone into the desert, where
The air is harsh, but not enough.
I want to be purified, but my flesh
Is rotting. I cannot take in what
I have never put out.
I wait in the desert, parched and afraid
That I’m imagining it all.
The dunes are a menace
To my prayer, and I stare them down
To forget my hunger.
Forget my hunger.
There is a light that shines upon
The floor, the fourth light, then
The seventh.
And it burns through me and all and out and
Now.
The kingdom has no king, for it is here and vacant.
No one passes the
Gate, but we all lean against the threshold,
In case a gale sweeps across
And forces us in.
Come, O gale. Please come.
I know you do not exist.
But I want to go in, yet I
Cannot.
The sand and strand are one
And one. The lover is three,
And I am zero. The desert is all,
The kingdom is sleeping.
Awake, awake, awake, awake!
For too many years I have
Held in my breath
My life has been sucked into my
Abdomen.
Breathe, human, breathe for your
Life. Let the pain come to me, let
Your pain come to you.
No need to create it, I have
Created anew.
A new renewal of what
They knew. So we
Sit.
In the desert
Where rain never falls.
