I sit up
Called awake in the
Quiet of night
Crickets sing in harmony
Their volume fades with
Dimming stars
Transitioning
To space between the worlds
All is pristine silence
As an eastern pink stripe
Peels the night into dawn
I am invited out
To softly walk
With moccasin weight
To imprint red sands
and crunch grasses
Thorny brush seeds
Poke and piggy back like velcro
to the fabric of my shoes
A chill envelopes dry air
While humid exhales of my own
Mingle
I pause with my hands in pile jacket pockets
Scanning 360°
Mesa silhouettes
Of limitless openess
Waiting for solar rebirth
One robin chirps
Then more
Announcing gentle shifts
Of timeless
Arising
A fair weather barometer
Hot air balloons launch
At the horizon
I wander along an arroyo
Following tracks
When I hear
Snorts and hooves
Drum the earth
Free range horses spot me
Tossing their heads
Playfully bucking around juniper trees
Jumping over tumbleweeds
They canter toward me
And skid to a stop
I am not the hand that feeds them
Yet we regard each other curiously
Through a thin screen of swirling dust
I walk
With calm spirit
Short breaths in
Long breaths out
The sky dome merges its
Coal fired edges
Blue purple darkness thins
Lengthens and creeps away
It is the turning point of a bold new day