Mired in sand as they were,
they beat their horses,
drove them deeper
into canyons,
into an ancient land from whose depths
smoke and spices rose, blended with
flesh and sand,
sand and flesh,
salt, rock, stubbornness,
dust- and sound-weighted air.
Convulsing imperceptibly,
churning with utmost outer urgency,
utmost inner patience,
the land spat forth
bread of blood and heat
and caked it in its passages,
fed it to its children,
burned it in its caves.
From ozone peak to sandy trough
petrified waves
erode transgressions,
eat horrors,
and with time and with indifference
disgorge their scoured remains.