Land of Drought

of inimitable light,

when you spoke, I listened,

rivering in your bare heights—

how could I know there was this much

water, sapphire lakes where

flamingoes breed and bacteria

feed the living rock—was it

lithium spawned a howling

waste or the wanton lust

of Albemarle Corp.—salt so

white it seemed a snowdrift—

call it the stony loaf

of greed—call it silver,

copper, molybdenum—call it

Placeton, El Cofre, Escondida—

neither fiery serpent, nor

scorpion will kill you, but cocaine

rushed from your hottest artery—

in San Pedro, on Caracoles,

the snail is this breathless tourist—

here’s to your flinty rock,

your prelude and fugue in teal

and turquoise—I have no claim

on your volleying galaxies, the desert

owl that ferries your dead—

here, where the yellow weed grows

I let down my hair, I sing—

Abigail Ardelle Zammit

* Italicised words are from the scriptures.