For I Have Long Departed

You cannot crucify me now
Or scourge my body red
For I have long departed life
To live among the dead

There is no gravestone marker laid
No earth disturbed above
I live within and in-between
The hatred and the love

I walk the dusty ditches of
New Mexico alone;
A thousand shades of red I see
That bleeds from ancient stone

She walked me West of Eden where
The buses run on time
She says the bus is never late
If you provide the dime

I gaze back at the garden gate
The gate and garden – gone!
I turn to her as if she might
Say something must be wrong

Her thread-bare bones stand silent white
Then vanish in the sand
But mixed among the mica grains
Gold rings from her left hand

The west wind blows with rage so wild
It cuts and strips my skin
I sit down under cactus shade
To contemplate my sin

As turbid air disturbs my view
The desert disappears
I rise into the morning sky
My face full flushed with tears

But fear is dissipated soon
It drowns along with dread
For I have long departed life
To live among the dead

July: 2007

Dust Bowl Memories

The houses built with wood from broken barns
Are weathered gray from bitter winds that blew
Where farmers lounged around and told tall yarns;
A tragedy of death came passing through.

The clapboards burnt by sunshine's scorching heat;
A symbol of depression are these homes.
They sit where midlands and the highlands meet,
Below the grandeur of great mountain domes.

Now through the thirties dust had buried life;
The scene surreal – compared to one great bowl.
The sadness seen in sunken eyes of strife,
So weary-worn in search of their lost soul.

The tops of fence-posts peek out from the earth
And wait in silent witness for rebirth.