The last Desert
April 13, 2010
Another unconnected fragment.
The last remaining characters in search of the traitor find themselves in an empty bright space.
SEE: It’s a desert at the end of the world
my shadow should be black, here it burns blue.
SPEAK: Reflected sunlight on the ground-glass sand
all shadows have a light to them we miss
we only see in this absolute place
where there is only shadow, light and sand
it quiets our ragged senses and reveals
the light within the shadow, like the sun
unfolds the blue in our sky with each rise
and hides it for the night.
SEE: And ground-glass sand?
SPEAK: I think this is our cities resting place
or all cities
SEE: Glass? From sand? The windows.
SPEAK: The cities sightless eyes blinded by time.
SEE: It’s impossible, no. They rise and fall
In many places all over the world
SPEAK: They grow and die by rivers and by seas
and when the glass from windows falls and breaks
Sooner, later, the water will take it
grind it over eons, and then leave it
SEE: Technology becomes geology
SPEAK: There’s plastic strata somewhere, credit cards
Bottle tops, ring pulls, shaped pieces of crap
none of it degrades so it must remain
transformed, hidden. It’s a closed system See.
SEE: Our condoms will outlast the pyramids.
I imagine distant alien life
landing here and reading my credit card
god that’s sad.
SPEAK: Transformed and hidden.
SEE: Hidden.
SPEAK: And transformed.
SEE: They came here to hide. Traitor.
