After His Marriage Proposal

After His Marriage Proposal
© Surazeus
2018 10 01

Stepping off the silver bus after noon,
he sits at the old metal picnic bench
under pyramid-shaped roof on four pillars
and stares at distant range of mountain peaks.

The flat landscape is red from desert sand,
the sky is the pale yellow of dead grass,
and the wind is thick with dust of the dead
that buffets his face with indifferent sadness.

With his finger marking letters in dust,
he writes the name of the woman he loves
but the wind erases it from the table,
so he watches horned toad skitter on sand.

People returning from dusty bathrooms
get back on the bus and sit on plush seats
just as the driver turns the engine on
which rumbles patiently in the hot glow.

Whispering the name of the woman he loves,
he contemplates walking into the desert
and never returning to the vast city
where he works in network security.

He signs that returning to the city maze
and continuing routine of his life
as nobody in the money machine
is less painful than starving in the desert.

Stepping on the silver bus after noon,
he sits by the dusty window and stares
at distant mountains where he longs to go
and dream alone in the cave of illusions.

Just after sunset in vast moonless night
the bus collides with a delivery truck
and when the bus rolls over onto sand
his head is smashed into the weeping window.