Moses Displaced (edit 1)

 

This desert will entomb me.

Each grain of sand will consume me;

A feast of decay, a burial by decree.

This desert will not let me escape.

It will hold me in its grasp

While in the sun my waters evaporate.

I have carried my people far, as if

On a river we travelled, in a reed basket ,

Seeking the promised land —

The swaying tree, the white-tipped river

Winding between the shadows of the valley, the dreams

Prophets have handed down like swaddled babes.

But now I know.

This desert is the end for me.

It whispers; it sings

The desert’s words are my unravelling.

This will be the home of my bones until I

Am desert too, unrecognizable even by God,

Blown across the sands as sand myself.

This desert’s rising and falling bosom undoes me,

Drinking me into the expanse so uniform

I will be forever displaced.