For how long had he been staring?
He didn’t know, didn’t need to,
time had ceased to matter,
carried off on the gravitational tide.
He had been walking for days
to get to this place, each step
a new beginning, each going nowhere.
He knew he might seek solace here,
knew he could never leave,
here, now, was his ancestral home.
There was a succulence to the sand,
the stones, the odd plants
that, like him, had taken shallow root,
seeking the succor of a rain
that was always on the horizon,
a mirage, a delusion, a desire.
So he stood and watched and waited
and knew that was the place, this
would never be the place. Time
flowed back over him, bathing him
and the encroaching dawn drew
him away from the world of dreams.