Silica dreams

The sands of time swivel in their tribal dance
The grains surge and rush between his toes
He doesn't budge from his towering stance
Age cakes his being, yet his body glows

He has lived in this world and relished it all
He has laughed and cried and loved and lost
He has felt the rise, the plateau, the fall,
Savoured the gains and suffered the cost

Blow by blow he recounts his journey,
Slows down on the special parts and rushes
Smoothly over the ones bitter, scary and unsightly.
A nearly senseless torrent of words he gushes

The sand collects and reminds him of now
He speeds on to the blessings to his kin
Sweet words of faith and harmony he does endow
Merged syllables, barely heard over the swirling din

Dust pierces my eyes without remorse
Unblinking I strain my eyes to see his face
A dune forms over him, scraggy and course
And he is sucked in to the thirsty haze

The sands of time have seized his outer shell
Yet his soul shall travel untiringly farther away
And somewhere within this realm of life
The caked dust will crumble to bare new clay