Preparing for the Desert

Nothing has escaped our attention.
We’ve dreamed up the camels, mustered our courage,
packed food and water rations, assembled the whole rigmarole
of sleeping bags mats tents ropes reins sewing kit
compasses maps GPS boots medicine box
clothes for the heat clothes for the cold
a long-blade knife for cutting the reins
in an emergency.
 
We’ll know when to let go.
 
At every crisis point, at every junction in the sands,
at least one of us will choose the smoothest route,
find the rhetoric of calm,
breathe in the winds of optimism –
persuaded by tangerine dawns.
 
At least one of us will leave something behind:
a fear, an illusion,
something beautifully possible
 

Judith Wilkinson

opening poem in collection In Desert, 2021, Shoestring Press,
ISBN 978-1-912524-89-1