the desert’s song

In the desert of the sun sparkles a fish pond
Fed by a spring and close to the sea.
Finned and winged creatures are in awe of the moon tide
Which carries them into the desert’s unknown.

In the desert of the divine winds and reeds sing harmony
Amid steaming rocks and bird bone skeletons.
Lovers entangled, sweet iris and sand
Open leafy minerals to ecstatic dance.

For centuries we visited and refused to see
The rebellious shimmer of this improbable pond.
Yet on sinews of hope small lizards meditate on joy.
They track the moving shadows of dusk and dawn with devotion.

In this desert of light infinite tenderness waters snow-tipped flowers.
Generous is truth’s miracle when petals bend
Into the moist kindness of a touch
That renders them inevitably to death.

The life of this desert - and this desert is life-
Moves in adagio for what is undemanding.
A thousand fireflies ascend
And love reveals itself in innocence.

Damselflies spring upward like arrows.
Brittle roots dissolve as dust.
We drop our bleeding knees astonished amid
The last of the mirage. We fall.

I want nothing now. How could I lack?
Ever is what is already here, kindred and kind.
In the desert of God, Bashō’s cicadas sing themselves
Utterly away.

And it is us
And nothing remains
But to love
What is.

credit: marta savelyeva | unsplash