Before the Sandstorm

Silence.

The desert at dead of night
Immense,
Empty,


Eternal


Stretching away
Dune after black dune


Shrouding dead emotions
Lying entombed in the dark.


Silence.

But for the whisper
Like a ghost of a smile


That rides the chill blackness


Resquiscat in Pace
Not dead, but sleeping.

Silence.
Tread softly here


Lest the long forgotten taste of wine
Sunshine and laughter


Passion and pain


The feel of your body
The sting of my tears


Those long buried phantoms
Awake


And arise


And live
And shriek


And storm


And rend the placid stillness of the night.


Silence!

I am the desert,
The sand dune,
The graveyard,


The night


What care I for the tinkle of camel bells
Or the flame burning in your makeshift little tent?


- Frank Krishner, Gangtok, Sikkim, 1 October 1991
Note: one of several poems between 1989 and 1991 with the desert motif, coming out from travels in Rajasthan and along the Sind border.