I waited for her like tea in the Sahara –
A longing melody from my youth.
Returning seasons to see
If she’d meet me there.
We had a sip, once,
But it had not steeped
And the thin water too hot,
So we left it to cool,
But the wind took it too.
The Sahara was of my searching,
And she, an oasis revealed.
Shimmering like a promise,
To wash my old sorrows.
Sometimes we mistake dunes for waves
And see the desert as an ocean.
But that is the timeless soul
Seeing something that was a million years ago.
What surprise, when I finally arrived
On your vanishing shore,
To have you pour me a cup of dirt –
And free me of my illusions
with your offer of nothing.
I had been wringing rocks, hoping for a spring.
But I was right –
Your barren sands have cleansed me –
Of my nomadic search.
For truly seeing where I stand,
I learned that
Wells wait wetly
When we dig beneath dry land.
