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.