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Georgia on My Mind.

....aggressive winds tonight...
Gales roar and plunder me....

But I am having visions of O’Keefe ... skulls...
... desert heat..
I think I’ve been there in some last capricious life
I know the desert lizards.

I know the crackle dry beneath the feet
Bird’s sleeping on a cactus sting
Papyrus grass in amber light
The rocky corridors of wandering hills
Incessant insect buzzing.

That line where desert meets the rainless sky
Is a disturbing parable
Under-weening nature struggles
Stifled in still air
Excess is a thing that cannot be endured
Dead bones lie whitening..
Then turn to dust...
The needy are long gone...
The Lily and the Stamen far away
All that remain are desert petals
As lovely as any flower known.

Low embers burn ...my Wicklow fire dies
And rising up towards my bed....
The pebble in my shoe that makes me limp
Is Albuquerque gold.

Kristine Byrne July 2013

Poems - 2013