Desert

DESERT

Thoughts lay quiescent
in the brilliant heat.
Even emotion is tamed
by the hot air of a
blistering desert day.
We are nothing here;
no more lasting than
a memory of footsteps
that made the dust recoil
and small scaly animals
skitter to find safety.
Timelessness lives where
the ghosts of yesterday
still ride the arid sky.
Humanity appears small,
amongst the sand and cacti.
Our petty grievances
become little more than
a wind-whipped dust mote
traveling quickly through
the space where
the gleaming sun makes
apparent the sharp
shadowed edges of both
danger and salvation.

Tracy L Cartwright