POETRY
Desert Heat
by Marina Lee Sable

The heat sets
like coagulating blood,
a smoldering heart
inside the stone sun of the city.
The torrid clarity of sky
bears down on the mind,
claustrophobic and stifling
as a locked door in an unlit
and windowless stairwell.

Without warning,
the sky explodes with sand,
a marauder of hope
plundering the streets.
Beyond the boundary,
goatskin tents flap wildly
like captured crows
in an entropic land
of dredged-up bones.

Then nothing. Silence.
Sand settles into place
layering rooftops, streets,
sneaking through cracks
until you wish a vengeful god
would rip loose the clouds,
unleash the rain
and wash it all away.

Shimmering jinn
and whirling dust devils
of fleeting lovers
vanish from the horizon
as cool air unravels
like ectoplasmic filaments
from fingertips.
A glittering confetti of stars
is tossed into the night sky,
rocks resonating with every sound,
and at the abandoned hour
every murmured thought
lost in the desert consciousness.