Crying the Storm

Dried invisible stains

   Like lightning bolts,

   striking,  hurdling 

Contour into the pores

    Down my round

scarred flesh

         I will crack, but first-  fossilize,

 splint and fragment these dry cheeks

The gravel of this desolate mask

 

And when it disintegrates,

     falling like snow

       to Earth's dirty surface

   with only a touch of silence

                    softly at my feet

 

Please

       Don’t let me forget

to dance in the whirlwind of ashes

all over the death

                 of my smile,

     like a bittersweet Indian

                              grave

      my only memorial

          of a warrior’s ache