dibáá’ nishtj (I am thirst) *** Options

[mt2polar]

dibáá’ nishtj

A poem of us would begin without words
dried for decades in the desert
Each cracked rock, red bit of sand
and petrified bone were laid as they were thought
describing what they couldn't

That tiny wind polished stone there
held volumes on a breath just behind your neck
The flecks of bentonite shine a bit of your salt
sun splayed from every ocean spray across the globe
Sidewinder tracks smooth perfect curves
as you move unknowingly across my mind

There is no water

Every plant and creature holds
close the drops of life that are wholly in your being
Cactus, gnarly and spined, bow and flower
at your color's choice
The versatile and cunning coyote roam
without a desert master but their tails
curl under for your whim

Wind is the sand's whisper chords
reverberating within your chest
Night descends with a dry silent chill
holding still for life's reprieve and rejoice
It is your day's last kiss before our eyes
dream and dance

A Tiger Rattle's bite and the Bark scorpion's sting
remind the living, in a pointed fervor
that liveliness is the only deserving course
for our veins

Brittlebush jot the landscape yellow
calling me to pull them and get them out
There is the Gambil's Quail, a Black Rail
the Roadrunner, and Gilded Flicker
grounded or flying
they make the desert thrive
with beauty and feather

And finally, standing firm
centuries on end, the Joshua Tree
Here, at its trunk, is a parchment
scorched and split in two
A poem is written on it.

"I am the desert, the living and worth within is you"

[mt2polar]

Eira,

You went right to my heel, of us/for us/about us. I was also thinking "This poem would begin....". It might have been the title were it not for the Navajo words "I am thirst" and their spin off the "i am death" Bhagavad Gita reference. Needless to say, I have thought long and hard against what I wrote. I hate the first line but we live with ourselves, no? You've given me some needed support in fixing it.

"Wind is the sand's whisper chords
reverberating within your chest"

Sand and vocal chords and breathing don't play well but that is the poem's point, to find something perfect where I least expected it.


"It really is so good to see you here again." - You have no idea I much I have missed it.




Syl,

Ha! Gambel's Quail. I spelled it wrong....:) Yes, in and around Arizona but the poem could have been the Sahara if it wanted to.

I think the poem is the fourth entity. There are more. The poem is the desert, who hid, desiccated for many years. I am thirst. To find the poem I had to go there believing it was the last place I should be, the last place I would find the living and worth within. The "you" throughout is my wife. I have been trying to write something worthy of my wife since we were kids. I don't know if this is it, but i think it is way beyond any to date. It started with a question, If she is water and I am thirst, where the heck are we?



Thank you for the warm welcome back and the kind review. For purposes here, you can say my "you" is the poetry board too.




mt

[Eisa]

Eira,

You went right to my heel, of us/for us/about us. I was also thinking "This poem would begin....". It might have been the title were it not for the Navajo words "I am thirst" and their spin off the "i am death" Bhagavad Gita reference. Needless to say, I have thought long and hard against what I wrote. I hate the first line but we live with ourselves, no? You've given me some needed support in fixing it.

"Wind is the sand's whisper chords
reverberating within your chest"

Sand and vocal chords and breathing don't play well but that is the poem's point, to find something perfect where I least expected it.


"It really is so good to see you here again." - You have no idea I much I have missed it.

Hi there - sorry for my slow return - Xmas kinda got in the way! It really is good to see you posting here.

You say you hate the 1st line (well it's really not that bad!) but sometimes you have do have to live with a line until the right alternative comes to you. (and it will, maybe even months down the line) I'll keep watching for a revision.

Eira