use me while you can

there's a black and white crow

on the back of a two-toned sheep

in a field of broken yellow stalks

below looming cliffs

high above the plains

little grey houses blend

with giant jagged boulders

and pale weathered stumps

life in the ghost of the bush

wind whips the acacias and strange forked palms

that cluster around the water hole

suddenly

out of the blowing sand

a milk-white camel appears

turbaned rider

blue robe billowing

bounces with the shambling trot

wears a sword and a rifle on his back

and hanging from his neck

a transistor radio. you blink and like ghosts

they're gone

under the wan disc of sand-masked sun

a woman grins

spits expertly

into the path of a struggling black beetle

six feet away

hoists her water bucket onto her head

and strides off up the trail. sun a steel ball glowing

behind endless blowing sand

sun a steel ball glowing

dust of fallen empires slowly flowing through my hands

use me while you can

pearl held in black fingers

is the moon behind dry trees

pearl held in black fingers

bird inside the rib cage is beating to be free

use me while you can

i've had breakfast in new orleans

dinner in timbuktu

i've lived as a stranger in my own house

too

dark hand waves in lamplight

cowrie shell patterns change

and nothing will be the same again

bullet in a sandstorm

looking for a place to land

bullet in a sandstorm

full heart beats an empty one

in the deck they dealt to man

use me while you can