Tag: Wordpress Photo Challenge

The weekly Wordpress Photo Challenge, sponsored by The Daily Post

Of Gold and Gilt

Of gold and gilt
And opalescence
The shrines we build
To gods and money

Desert shadows and silhouettes
Hazy sky and spectral highlights
Joshua, Tree of Life
Standing tall and lordly

Over this world
Of heat and sorrow
Which takes so much
Then leaves so little

In the desert lands
All gravel stone and sand
But for the cholla
In her prickly shrine

When night falls
And the first stars
Begin to twinkle
In the darkening sky

I am reminded
Earth is a very small place
And I
I am a very small man

Sometimes
The chasm between
You and I
Seems so deep
Seems so wide

I cannot see
Into the depths
I cannot see
The other side

I have stood
At the ends of the Earth
And wondered
What lay beyond

Not the horizon
Where there is only
More water
And more land

How many sunsets
Have I witnessed
In this lifetime
And all the others

How many times
Have I watched
The last rays
Of a day dying

On a drive
Through the beautiful mountains
Of a third-world country

I visited
Many towns and villages
Where people lived in what I called poverty

The more I drove
The more I realized how much I have
But how little of it I need

Ah, if only I had
The time and patience
Of Nature’s paintbrush
The glories I could create

In this precious slice
Of time allotted
I record her beauty
With all my skill

Stone tells a story
Of a vast sea
Millions of years old
Millions of years ago

Layer upon layer
Of silt
Of time
Accumulating