Disappear

I was in Golden Gate National Park at the northern tip of the Drakensburg mountains while traveling through South Africa during the month of May. On my hike up sandstone canyons and windy meadows I wrote the following poem as a reflection of my time in Johannesburg and the wilds of Southern Africa.

Disappear

O prism rivulets

Sailing in canyon wind

Touching a cairn, shimmering

The shadow of birds on pale sandstone

Perhaps this is life stripped to its essence.

Should you pity a man with nothing?

His fashions outdated

His beard untrimmed

His hair uncombed, unkempt

His wallet without swagger or persuasion

But did you see his smile, wide with life?

The present is all we have.

Did you notice the way of

The green bush leaves dancing in the sunlight

Contrasted with earthen tones of carved canyon walls?

You chase and you chase

Your technologies are effigies

Towering over soul and body

You cannot escape the vacuum of fear

That all you have will one day

Disappear.