People Of The Dust

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We pretend such monumental yet ordinary ambitions, 

Of proud achievement and remembrance,

Of celebration and wailed mourning,

Of marks to testify to our existence,

And the richness of the lives we led:


'Yes, we were here! Look at us and marvel!

Envy us our boundless aspiration! Be jealous

Of the moons we saw, that hung like lanterns

As we kissed in rapturous love! Learn from us! 

That you may live life to the fullest, too!'


We who are destined for dust, just dust;

Cushioning a stranger's footsteps on

Empty highways that snake from place to place,

Between the forgotten and never-had adventure,

Blasted by sun and rain and wind and snow.


We who are destined for dust, just dust;

Scattered across unquiet, ageless oceans,

From gentle, gorse-clad coast to savage shore,

From ragged reef to shingled beach,

From primal memory to noiseless deep.


We who are destined for dust, just dust;

Drifting silently across a thousand

Miles of desert, blown with the sand

On the Sirocco and Hammatan and Simoom,

Tossed high by the hooves of Arab horses.


We who are destined for dust, just dust;

Eternity spent among the clouds, not quite able

To touch more nearly  those divine entities

That watch from Heaven and, just occasionally,

Strike the bell of our lonely souls.

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