Call lands end
a sheer cliff fall
some hundreds feet straight
down to sculptured rocks
smooth pebbles, scratching sand,
the surf, sea…
we think land begins
as sea ceases.

Lifes geography misses such precision.

When was the first notice
of our own desert?
When more dune than hill?
More sun than shade?
Was the sensing the commencing?
No.
A child lost in woods.
The fact precedes the feeling
and now,
the throat is parched,
lips, cracking…
and the sun…
Oh! God!
The sun.