Driving down Skeleton Coast

 

 

Driving down the road
in the midday sun, scorching
white the sky, melting
into the bleached sand
on the horizon
behind waves of heat
rising into the heavens
after the morning mist’s
burnt away by an unforgiving sun.
 
I’m driving in
a forgotten land,
amongst skeletons
of dried trees,
an antelope,
a shipwreck,
alongside an ocean,
cold and wicked.
 
The air is breathless,
I feel lost, forgotten,
here I am, alone,
at the mercy of silence,
my thoughts,
my self,
exposed.
 
I’ve been swallowed,
drawn in, seduced,
my mind plays tricks,
mirages of palm trees,
an oasis that doesn’t exist,
in total isolation.