2023
what can I do
with my heap of broken things
that is not
discard the world
and
begin again
I break dreams
as naturally
as gravity
breaks waves
time is the desert wind
love is the grain of sand
flung whitehot
into the arid traveller’s eye
we walk on
our eyes water
the days sting
in time, we forget why
sand or love, grief or infection
in time, we forget why
(don’t worry.)
***
and then when the days have gathered
like stone across the tomb
light also will break
again
across the day
your dream is misremembered now
your revelation its familiar
the day feels like shadowplay
the dream more like the real
you are alone
with your misremembered dream
with your wounded longing
the horizon shakes yet though
fata morgana, redemption
or are these only tired eyes
and will the longing
prove the worth of all its ache
when someday it supplants the real
mirage, salvation
still the horizon shakes
they told me
before I left
there is an oasis
up ahead