Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 21:30:24 -0500 (CDT)
From: Phanny <corbett@sluaxa.slu.edu>
Subject: SUB: CONTEST: NON: Poem: Desert Reverie/Before the Fall

             Desert Reverie/Before the Fall


I knew this girl once
long ago
little sister to the thundergods
unfettered and androgenous
summer days spent wandering
among the pinon-studded hills
received with grace
the twisted kiss of juniper
and smiled to taste the bitterness

She stood upon the mesa rim
balanced between mad ecstasy and fright
by the tumbled drop
that swooped below
while cicadas droned the lazy afternoon along

Then, before good sense could root her feet,
she spread her arms
and bolted over
shouting laughter at the purple-eyed shadows
that glared askance
as she plunged downward
in gleeful leaping bounds
accompanied by the sudden rush and clatter
of dislodged stones
that quickened
ricocheted to life
swarmed and showered in accelerating abandon
raced her to the bottom
where they rolled
reluctantly
to rest again
one by one
inanimate

The girl grinned and loped on
through deep-sanded arroyos
twisting snake-like through the hills
until at last
lungs burning in the thin air
she, too, came to rest
sank to her knees
within the orange-walled labyrinth
while ravens
spiraled waltzes
against the dazzling ache of blue
so vast that tears shook loose
in joy and sympathy

Now, as I step softly
into the middle of my life,
I recall with gratitude
this wanton girl
from another time
who raced among the multitude
of desert stones
and finished
honorably