Burning Man
Burning Man
Meredith Heller ©2018
Published in Rebelle Society
Burning Man cracked my world open like a lightning storm.
Everywhere I went, I saw explosions of creative force, multidimensional mirrors, interactive landscapes of experiential awe; I saw my own potential. Eighty thousand people from diverse walks of life, building art, riding bikes together in the desert, surviving dust storms, and there was no war. Instead, we came together in community and care, creative expression and celebration, with courage to burn and cleanse the past in this desert temple and summon new life and new connections through the portal of what is healed and awakened.
I have expanded outwardly as far as I have deepened inwardly,
and I am humbled, transformed, and inspired.
I have found my tribe. I have tasted my essence.
The desert has left her fingerprints in the dust on my skin.
Biking across the moon
at Burning Man
A temple of infinite white
an ancient river bed
its belly scalloped and scaled
by fossilized fish
and creatures who make pearls
in the darkness
underground
The wind is my compass
she wraps me in waves of silk
that blow like sails.
She leads me in circles
and I follow her into labyrinths
where she whispers her wisdom
in deep vibrato
each note clicking into place
unlocking my rusty gates
Surrender to the dust
all day and all night
the white witch
sugars my skin
Follow her silver trails
that trace my body
like a map
revealing each crevice
where I push or pull
toward or against the grain
where I stretch
on the bias
The doors of the desert
open to let me in
I turn on a kaleidoscope
of color and sound
that bleeds
into one heart pulsing
spinning dust devils
blowing her song
on didgeridoo
Guiding me through worm holes
into spaces of stillness
where for one brief moment
I am held in the palm of her hand
offered a cool drink from her oasis
and billowing with gratitude
I spill into everything
and nothingness
all at once
~
Dawn in the desert
licks the sky
with her pastel tongue
The moon drips the last of her honey
from the tip of her scythe
into the horizon’s fold
The pirate ships
that roam the riverbed
sail home
with their carousel horses
and their Coney Island neon
and fade slowly
as morning consumes the night
Here in the desert
where civilizations rise and die
leaving no trace
of their love
and their loss
totems crumble and fall
in the fire
that is speaking in tongues
I am tempered
in the forge of the sun
heated and cooled
hammered and folded
over and over
until the inside of me
and the outside of me
meet and merge
I see between the particles
to the space
that connects us all
We are the makers
the specks that glow
in this great sea
leaving only an echo
as we sign our names in the dust
which we too,
will become.
