Heat waves frolic along the desert’s endless edge
I hear the shuffling of camel’s toes
The soft landing of camel dung
The smell adding to my woes
My knees embedded in sand
Awaiting the wrath of the queen of hearts
The bald ibis watches from his rocky perch
I glimmer a glint of steel through shrouded eyes
The camel and ibis are not surprised
They’ve seen many times how a man dies
Heat waves frolic along the desert’s endless edge
Having no power to stop their play
On a whim of the wind they hold their place
The camel and Ibis are rarely seen
Betwixt the sand and the dust devils space
The wind has no say as to what happens next
When frolicking ends and attention is paid
A man with no head leaves them perplexed
The camel and ibis are not surprised
They’ve seen many times how a man dies
Michael Glassman is a 75-year-old retired Social Studies teacher living in Newburgh, N.Y.
I hereby consider myself schooled. I like this so much more than my own poem of a couple days ago on the same subject. You’ve brought in all of the sensory details, even the sand beneath his knees … and nature goes on. Thank you.
morning Dona:
I just read your comment about ‘Desert.’ thank you for the compliment.
I know we learn from each other.
if you like please send me your poem.
michael
Thank you for your reply. My poem was the second of two posted on February 20th. I wouldn’t want you to miss the fabulous picture they found to accompany the first poem. Thank you for looking at it! I’ll appreciate your comments. Of any kind.
By the way, older poetry can be found by clicking Poetry Archive at the bottom of the homepage. Dona’s poetry can be found here: http://classicalpoets.org/winters-passing-and-other-poetry-by-dona-fox/