I Have Been a Desert

I have been a desert,
Vast horizon gulping clear sky,
Parched throat guzzling sand,
Choking on myself,
Too dry to beg.
Footprints dragging across my dunes
Bleached skeletons lying naked upon me
The hateful degrees of heat
wasting me
inside and out.

Rain in such a place is no blessing.
It tastes of iron and regret,
Every stinging drop pits into me
like acid.
The scars of a million tears with no accompanying scream to make them make sense!
Let me burn under the sun
Eternal and resilient.
Do not feed me just enough, just enough, damn you!
to keep my sparse appendages alive
and then go.
You always go.
I have always been a desert.