Uncounted
By Mickey Cesar

Weeds once grew
riotous from flowing veins,
and words stormed through
shaking leaves and swaying branches;
kisses once formed in torrential downpours,
and poems in dark draughts —

Seasons shifted from sun to ice,
and clouds once swept from dark to light,
but the desert is dust.

The desert is uncounted remnants
of crushed dreams borne away by the breeze —
an all-encompassing epitaph in chalk,
hot,
and suffocating.

— Lawrence poet Mickey Cesar, a staff sergeant in the Lawrence-based 317th Quartermaster Battalion, is stationed at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, a few miles from the Iraqi border. Poet’s Showcase features work by area poets. Submit your poetry via e-mail with a subject line of Poet’s Showcase to mpaget@ljworld.com or send typewritten (not handwritten) submissions to Mindie Paget, 645 N.H., Lawrence 66044, attn: Poet’s Showcase. Teen writers should submit their work to the 18 & Under page at teens@ljworld.com.