Desolate Glow

Stone dust covered boots
remain the only thing
between me and this
mountain path
where birds hangout
after eating their fill
from the river.

A brown snake
opens its jaws at me
as a reminder
not to walk too close
before it fades
into the madness
of a dust cloud.

The mountain permeates
everything touching it
even the water
I brought from
far away resembles
the taste of gravel.

I don’t know why I came here
to this jagged place
that clearly wants no part of me.
Where the very footholds
lust to draw my blood.

A moth moving like a ghost
scrapes the side of my face
with its soft wing,
but loses no momentum,
and continues
its search for a mate
in this desolate place.

There must exist
another kind of light.