Echoing footsteps
Crescendo under a stony sky.
Harsh words of graffiti litter,
Glitter against a rough-hewn high.
Its curving arch stands stark naked against the sand,
The barren exterior rising above stunted green.

Echoing voices
Die away with eyes shut tight.
Everyone waits for me, for me,
But I must cry out.
The stone welcomes me as all my passions try to burrow into the walls,
Trying to hold on forever, yet the walls resist.
Cement melts into a flood,
Dragging the past back into motion with its turbulence.

Echoing water
Crashes over smooth stones,
The Great golden orb vaults over the horizon.
The pure, young light has yet to be tainted by the darkness of days.
It illuminates all, revealing black shadows in their true forms.
The Sun escapes from the night,
Darkness reflected in its blinding light.

Echoing laughter
Issues together from separate tongues.
Singing becomes white noise
As labors of love open painful blisters.
A barren, crumbling sanctuary lies on icy slopes to welcome us to our harsh home.
Mud becomes my second skin,
Yet no unruly mask to get lost in.
Instead, I find a truer me,
One which somehow reached the
Surface from underneath my dirt-flecked body.

Echoing bell tolls,
Reverberate in the ancient city.
I see beauty in littered streets and rain-washed corners as
Gray works of men swallow seas of green.
Silver bullets mechanically slide away from the platform,
Away from unnaturally dense smoke,
Into crystal sky and yellow petal

Echoing silence
Seeps into the hearts of victims.
In a bare circle of cold bricks, a sense of sorrowful hope blossoms,
Strangers are brought together in a bloodless battle against
Stark white marks on
Black walls.

Echoes
Fill the rocky horizon.
My echoing shouts fade with the Sun’s last glow.
Just as time has molded this bridge,
It has molded me.
The flood pools into stone as I walk away.
As I walk away, I turn for one last glimpse.
My haven sleeps with the desert
And I walk away into the horizon, leaving
Just another bridge.