Mirage

You're a false rumor of rain, a dream of mist, chimera in the barren dusk
All is rolling millennial dead ocean and you're the mirage in this wasteland.

Each parched grain once the body of living coral, antiquated anemone
Recycled fragments like a snowflake in its perfection
Desiccated to death, incessant scorched wind chiseled skeleton
I look at you never clear-eyed, sick vision stared too long at the sun
Surrounded in sand drifts and you my solitary hallucination

All around are ashes, decomposing dust,
The mummified neighbors and their pets greet us
With their brains and hearts enclosed in porcelain jars
They slave their lives for the construction of communal crypts

I lift my veil under a black moon, black coal lined eyes watch
Stars kiss the dunes in every direction
Waiting for you mirage in the desert, I flourish
Like Narcissus in love with his own watery image
I'm just a brambled Echo calling you across the badlands
Hear my faint psalm in the sand storm

I hum fragrant floret melodies of bubbling brooks of shared date and honey cakes
Mineral waters curing the weariness out of the vagabond

Remove your shroud quench your lifetime thirst
Inside me are lush rainforests temperate and forgiving
I'm a desert flower in bloom among the thorns
Speckled stone circles in holy groves kept secret
Ancient trees taller than pillars still hidden in this open horizon
I'm your intimate oasis in this wilderness
The crescent to your sun