Jamal

the night slides into the day quite conspicuously

as the sun rises beyond earth's rotation and on

it opposite side...  night gradually gobbles up

all the daylight that was previously left behind;

black as the night...  Jamal...  whose path is not

his own, walks quietly along allowing his vision

to direct the movements of his legs and feet

that touch the ancient dirt that touched a

thousand feet before his...  as he moves with

undeniable effort through the darkness;

his home, an abandoned cave, provides warmth

and shelter from both light and dark that

constantly attacks him in an an effort to drain the

spirt that provides him with a willingness to survive...

the animals that he kills and eats...  fear him...

as they should...  his skills are better than theirs;

when he sleeps, Jamal's head rests on the skull

of a lion...  his body wraps up in the sun-dried

skin of a polar bear...  his mind drifts into the

innear space of the spirits whose souls lived

here long before his birth...  daylight finds

Jamal at the corner of his property watching

earth eaters scrape away his domain as a

flat surface without vegetation is created... 

and a city soon will be built juxtaposed to

the mountain propeerty he refused to sell.

30 September 2021