snake-like from a distance

            dry rivers flowing nowhere
scaling craters and mountains
adolescence was cruel
to this pocked and pimpled
sponge

tell me ugly sphere
what secrets do you hold

kicking up sand
i curse it’s cold shoulder
you’re mere debris
of yonder cloudy gray planet
wish i could
breathe life into your nostrils

a tremor
a quake
erupting red
like an angry face

crawling, i grab on
to some flag draped stake

shielding my eyes
trembling
in disbelief
faint, yet distinct
footprints
in the dust
eroding away

Houston, Texas ‘81