Desert Ouroboros

By Ruth Nolan

Desert River

the Amargosa

exits Death Valley at sunset

mouth west, an intermittent

snake moving in and out of

sand, marking midnight trails

across dry skin, drifting

to the white noon and lifting

your desire to flow lower than

below sea level then rising

at dawn into fat sand dunes

having devoured itself again.

Copyright © 2009 Ruth Nolan All rights reserved.