the wet heat dragged out time until it was no longer time;
an unravelled spool of thread that I tried to rewind
with every forward step
despite their self-betraying jibes of pain.
sand whipped into my eyes
piercingly benign;
guiding out the latent strength that somehow still remained.
the wind halted.
the thread went slack within my hands.
i had found my horse, that faithful companion who, for all my life,
had borne the responsibility of my survival.
i found it dead.
the thread soon slipped from my fingers
and faded into the blackening sand.

His eyes abrim with wonderous joy
a long-locked boy roars from the heights
of Eden's stair-like boughs.
A falcon bursts, and rises,
from the base of the climbing sun
a song of fire ringing in its beak.
On his outstretched tongue the boy can feel
the melody of freedom blaze
and from his tree he leaps,
feet pounding on the clouds.
Though he falls,
he does so in the liquid sky
where earth is heaven,
and heaven is earth.
Eden fades,
its lands now desolate,
its fruits withered