Desert Song 

And the coyotes howled 

Speaking to the heavens like an old friend calling to a lonesome night

A language only understood by the burnt cliffs

A tongue adopted through the erosion of misunderstanding

Red towers watching the sun rise and fall

Noting the shadow of each tree temporarily planted in cold soil

Time withering the trunk until only the hands of rain could meld their grooves

I ask the coyote what he mourns

To whom does he howl to

it is only then that I realize I wasn’t supposed to hear

his cries were not for my mind and not for my soul

I close my eyes, vibrations melt into the chasms of the night

Gesturing to the stars

I squint 

The smaller my retinas the less I exist and the less I intrude

The less my undeniable humanity penetrates through the desert wind

The breath of his cry creates swirling clouds 

A song for the pain, the exquisite serenity of existence

A song for those whom the land belongs to, the stolen ground of native soil

A song for the nostalgia of a hollow desert sky

A song for the beings whose blood palpitates from the red dirt

Cry forever, mourn eternally, the breach of a stolen night

Seasons of The Incandescent Sun

Wood glides quietly into water guiding the animosity of the blue

A crystalline reflection of snow from seasons before

Time warping the form of matter 

Bending our shoulders ever forward 

Haunching into the fetal form from which we originated 

Passing over the earth in a peaceful massacre of ego

The callusing of passion, burning of a love affair 

All scribbles on the canvas of time 

The water from which my lips met the antidote of thirst

Flowing from the river of life 

Snows of prior winters etched into an empty creek bed

Red and yellow now dotting the ground 

Departing from the trees whom derived their very birth 

Like the child strayed from home 

An estrangement from the breast of nurture 

Ushered by the guidance of a chilled air 

Sunken cheeks compelled to smile by concave muscles 

The robbery of youth in the season of the incandescent sun