"Waiting for the Sunrise": Free poetry book |
In The Painted Desert (excerpt)
The cactus stand silenced
with their arms raised to their ears like
they must now be listening, waiting for an answer
to something...
An answer to come whooping across the sand
like a tumbleweed rolling into the thorns
of their fat succulent juicy flesh.
Pink cactus flesh
with a red and yellow cactus flower
decorated my clay dinner plate next to the
rice.
A tumbleweed sat near the dust on my feet
as if it was affirming the answer it must
have given the cactus. Bringing back to me
the gossip from the conversations I had
heard whispered in the desert air here
before.
The tumbleweeds gossiped about the cactus.
The dullard cactus still stood there, their
arms raised listening for a reply to some
question even as the dusk fell deep into the
night …
the orange and blue night.
I rolled up into my sleeping bag, in
the cold, snuffling to myself and staring up
at the roof of the sky over me, stars peeping
back as timid as galloping jack rabbits
hightailing it away, afraid of my cloaked
feet moving under the bag liner.
Later, I stuck my overly-warm feet into
the cold air to cool them off,
unzipping the edge of
the quilted bag.
The stars grew bolder when they
saw that I was falling asleep, as if they had been
speaking to me from far away...
silent hounds who moved their mouths,
but emitted no noise due to the distance,
gradually getting larger and closer
to me like the curious gentle coyote.
The moon blew open the heavy darkness
and skittered across the sand
like a frightened beige spider on
long pale legs.
I snored loudly trying to make myself heard
across the distance.
A coyote, yipping, ending in a snorkel, dove
into the Arizona night.
Half-aware, I slept on through the moon-
flecked darkness, my cheeks puffed up with
the effort of snoring so loudly.
The frozen air reddened my face
which was turned towards the morning,
which would be there soon.
Copyright c 2016 Cathy Smith from Wishes on the Edge of Time
with their arms raised to their ears like
they must now be listening, waiting for an answer
to something...
An answer to come whooping across the sand
like a tumbleweed rolling into the thorns
of their fat succulent juicy flesh.
Pink cactus flesh
with a red and yellow cactus flower
decorated my clay dinner plate next to the
rice.
A tumbleweed sat near the dust on my feet
as if it was affirming the answer it must
have given the cactus. Bringing back to me
the gossip from the conversations I had
heard whispered in the desert air here
before.
The tumbleweeds gossiped about the cactus.
The dullard cactus still stood there, their
arms raised listening for a reply to some
question even as the dusk fell deep into the
night …
the orange and blue night.
I rolled up into my sleeping bag, in
the cold, snuffling to myself and staring up
at the roof of the sky over me, stars peeping
back as timid as galloping jack rabbits
hightailing it away, afraid of my cloaked
feet moving under the bag liner.
Later, I stuck my overly-warm feet into
the cold air to cool them off,
unzipping the edge of
the quilted bag.
The stars grew bolder when they
saw that I was falling asleep, as if they had been
speaking to me from far away...
silent hounds who moved their mouths,
but emitted no noise due to the distance,
gradually getting larger and closer
to me like the curious gentle coyote.
The moon blew open the heavy darkness
and skittered across the sand
like a frightened beige spider on
long pale legs.
I snored loudly trying to make myself heard
across the distance.
A coyote, yipping, ending in a snorkel, dove
into the Arizona night.
Half-aware, I slept on through the moon-
flecked darkness, my cheeks puffed up with
the effort of snoring so loudly.
The frozen air reddened my face
which was turned towards the morning,
which would be there soon.
Copyright c 2016 Cathy Smith from Wishes on the Edge of Time