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"