desert dance
Canadian International School of Hong Kong, Jun Pang, Poetry: Group 4
at dawn
the brisk breeze
assails the sand
for control of the center.
the sun lilts a permafrost lullaby,
and standing sentry, sagebush
puncture the silent landscape,
the endless sea of sand.
no one hears the deafening silence,
the upbeat to this desert’s silky biyelgee -
bestial, intimate, and unforgiving,
a signal to begin:
frst, the tiptoeless candencia -
glistening dunes baulking at chilled heat,
stalwart, cool but lithe,
golden molecules against slivers of blazing sun.
then, the wind - gusting, volant, sudden -
kindling a languishing pall of fecks and gold dust,
ferce and unrelenting,
no forewarning to brace for impact,
leaving remnants of a storm of pawned frost.
next, the calesita -
along the scorching yellow strand,
the dunes rest, obstinate, eroded,
stupas of infnite proportions,
resisting the tides of the atmosphere, with
gravity’s unwavering pull
sustaining this monogamous, serial exchange.
the stalemate:
a lone zephyr whipping out against the steppe,
shielded by rain shadow
weighed down by land pneumonia
in this paradisiacal dance
of earthly dimensions.
