he awoke in the blazing sun...to the sound of rattles....his eyes sealed from dried tears...crack open to slits...before him a hazy light...and a snake slithering by....coils and recoiling....patterned in diamonds...a mirage of death in sight...so still he lay scarcely daring to breathe ******* the air into his lungs...as the rattlesnake slowly retreats...from his prone form...and slides away into brush....he heaves a sigh and reaches for a canteen...shakes it and feels a slosh...the heat scorching his soul...as he slowly rises...and sees a horizon rippling dancing....no end in sight....he was left alone when his partner robbed a bank and away they ran into the night....he drove the vehicle into the desert and ran out of gas....peddle pumping hopeless...his partner took off ...for help he said but waving a gun crazy like...so he let him go alone....now he faces an endless hike...water nearly gone...his legs stiff and sore...cramped from lying on the hard ground....he stumbles on...and sees something hovering...a strange bird with red rings and wild eyes....speaks to him in a strange tongue...as the man wanders and stops...the bird stretches out his wings...and soars off taking the man's soul with him....as they fly over rocky ground...the man sees his life unfold....he was a runaway at the age of nine....he sees a sister walking selling her soul on rough streets...he sees a needle in his arm before he was fifteen...and losing the battle of life so young...he flies with the bird and sees more...he sees a life of crime start from little hope...he sees love so little of it....in a girl who once believed in him...as the bird turns in flight to gaze at him...he sees her eyes...dark with forgiveness...as the man is flying...he cries...and his tears water the baked ground below..as the bird settles lightly upon his soul...and frees him back to his body...where he awakes...to find himself back in his one room cell....bars before him...and a ******* the other side...who loves him


by l. b.
sept 2012