Life Challenges

People Tell Their Stories:
Death and Dying

the ghost of niobe a poem by Cheryl Latif

we walk together late afternoon
the ghost of niobe at your side
still flesh
her weeping echoes through the canyon like
the mournful wails of coyote mid night
i watch you feel you shudder at the sound of
her sobs
even the chaparral rustles

you are not sered like tumbleweed though
i see you loosed and unrooted from time to time
times like this under unmerciful sun
casting shadows where none exist
shadows of this ghostly myth
all too real to you

the trail is hot and dusty
rain long overdue
you walk on
wordless
unbent
each step a testament
each stride a truth

you have found a way to survive the still air
cloudless skies
inescapable sun
even bloom
like cacti in low desert

Cheryl Latif became seduced by words at an early age. She's been in love ever since. Her work has appeared in "Between Sheets," "Limestone Circle," and "[sic] vice & verse;" on the Web at poets4peace, and in the Map of Austin Poetry, a weekly Web-based newsletter. She also had the surprising honor of her poems placing first and third in the 1998 SPAWN poetry contest. A collection of her poetry, "transformations," was published earlier this year. Cheryl is the host of Poetic Brew, a weekly poetry reading that is home to some of the finest poetry heard in San Diego from local poets as well as poets from across the country. http://www.latifpoet.com

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