it grasps slime-slicked rocks and hugs them

smothers them, swallows them whole

The person who watches (who is part

of me)

is compelled and repelled, alternately – a

subjugated rock

a seething cold sea

One of us is crouched, glaring into desert

face cloaked and eyes blinded, I can’t

say who, but I know it’s another

other of my own

an envious drifter

with needs, with held-grudges

a being of nerve ends

a scorpion camouflaged by heat-holding sand

like a remnant of cultures shattered

forgotten

fragmented, unforgiving

defiantly unhealed