On a small road-
just the desert and me,
I walk alone on a pathway to infinity.
Nothing but sand for miles to see-
following the path is my destiny.
I carry on.
I pass a cactus. I pass a bush.
My feet disintegrate as the burning sand
takes its place in my flesh
(I’m a petrified man).
The sun is my master.
Under I stand.
I lower my head at his mighty command.
I carry on.
I pass a cactus. I pass a bush.
I hear the sound of the coyote.
I see the crow
following me.
I pass the carcass on which they both feed.
Having no concept of hunger and need
I carry on.
I pass the cactus. I pass the bush.
Under the sun to which I succumb
I feel my body begin to go numb.
I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight
as I surrender to the blanket of light.
Without my eyes, I can’t see the blisters.
All of the sights have turned into whispers.
I must find water, and I must find it soon-
feeling my way as I call to the moon.
“I’ve lost my road- I can’t see my way.
I’m on my knees- please help me,” I pray.
“I’m on my way to the end of the path”
I heard a sound, and I started to laugh.
It’s so familiar, and so far away.
I turn and listen to look for the way.
I feel it in me.
I hear it call.
After a moment I begin a long crawl.
It calls through the wind,
and it knows my name.
The river haunts me.
It drives me insane.
It says to me words that I never speak.
I must have water.
My body is weak.
So far away from the path that I knew,
my vision’s gone, but my direction is true.
The ground is changing-
I can feel with my hand.
A firmer substance is replacing the sand.
I feel the grass.
It tickles my nose.
It feels like magic between my toes.
Then, all of a sudden, I come to a wall.
I hit my head (I don’t remember my fall).
I have a dream in which I can fly.
When I awake I can open my eyes.
I see the wall was really a tree.
It was the shade that had been sheltering me.
I hear the stream, and I see it at last.
I take to running and forgetting the past.
Soon I am free- naked- airborne- jumping in.
I realize only then-
I do not know how to swim.
I fight the current.
I hold my breath.
My weight is determined to lead me to death.
My final shout is less than a cry
as I surrender and prepare to die.
How funny death
is more like a float.
What had seemed certain, now seems remote.
Now that I live, what should I do?
How could I know what I was jumping into?
For the first time I noticed the fish
using their bodies, they go where they wish.
(swim) (swim) (swim) (swim)
I am the river.
I am the fish.
Using my body,
I go where I wish.
(swim) (swim) (swim) (swim)
I head downstream.
I move with the flow.
Content to live within the boundaries I know.
The banks are changing.
The trees have all gone.
I feel so lonely, but I keep moving on.
Something is different.
I sense something new.
(I put it aside,
but the sound only grew)
I do not fight it, or strive to break free.
I’m in the stream, and the stream is in me.
Ryan Burnette 