Thi gaslowsy narrier tays

Tho thi dreepy chorses’ mamp.

Hir voxles sinno thi vrays

Uv bedge yere thi bubbit glays

Aurit uv hir sonely blamp.

Hungry, I did troop

Round the waste oasis

Uphill and down dale,

Huntin’ for a side

O’ mutton.

When a local stopped

While carryin’ a pail

To ask, “What’re you

Doin’ here?” I lied,

“Oh, nuthin’.”

Hin un lall clomber,

crendlacs caud net peen

Stroiled bo’er hir lypes,

un mis iglern’d grung han.

Thi sice wis sork, net

gurnitur’d, cand sean.

Stet yere thi lidom

uv un ruce emgan.

Haip nim’d sut fowbly;

sturely ne jan stet

Plut jivver tenst thi

prevvy wearld bith smess.

Whit reed uv haip? Hir

gnew whow lypes ware plet.

Hir howned un bruntlacs

psirit—cand un mress.

Pernod on her breath and thick Clinique

citrus and alcohol

players unfiltered tilted in her slender fingers

my tie is correct

this dark suit is pressed

one diamond glitters on a silver stud

we grin our wolfish grins and drink

our tonics

swept up in the beat of music

the techo eighties

crimped hair

midnight and we’re still there

swaying and inebriated

the sweating masses

the shiny faces of

revellers

our masks delight us

Oh, speak to me,

dear sands of desert,

infinity shifting ‘neath my feet

Oh, sing to me,

you craggy mesas,

abundant, eternal, your soul’s replete

with histories

and mysteries

you who are my sisters, please

reveal it, I entreat

the timeless secret for which we yearn,

that holds the lesson we’re here to learn

that God remains complete

For you and I, dear mesas, sands,

are cupped forever in eternal hands

Come in, you wind, please, settle down

Must be quite tired, all that rushing around!

Tell me a tale – oh, come on, dear wind!

Tell me what you’ve seen, tell me where you’ve been?

Yes, please come in, wind, to tell me a story –

Whatever you speak of, I know will not bore me

You’ve flown over here, blown over there,

Visited places no one would dare

You’ve traveled so near, traveled so far,

Say, what is it like to touch all those stars?