Desert Dream

by Debra Lyn Menssen

The cool red sand beckons my feet

To shed stiff shoes and burrow

Into its secret coolness.

The sun shines from a photograph,

Where its rays on the steep stone

Warm my back.

I long for the flight of the raven.

Gliding and crying above the juniper.

Fanning desert heat.

But I live like the lizard in winter.

Buried asleep under rocks and snow,

Waiting for a change.