Dancing across the desert
with a slender ballerina,
I hear a voice whisper
sister. The ballerina slips
from my embrace and vanishes
into a mirror half-buried
in sand and cactus flowers.
I try to follow, breaking
the mirror with my first step.
Its glass bleeds like skin.
Brother. I hold my breath.
Wind blows a fine sand
across the broken shards.
I drop to my knees,
cutting them on the glass.
I hear a voice whisper
brother. I raise my head.
The hand of the ballerina
extends from the mirror,
trying to caress my face.
Cliff Saunders is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including Mapping the Asphalt Meadows (Slipstream Publications) and The Persistence of Desire (Kindred Spirit Press). His poems have appeared recently in Quadrant, The Rockford Review, Exacting Clam, Concision Poetry Journal, ArLiJo, and Cigarette Fire.
