The legacy of the unremarkable

the wet heat dragged out time until it was no longer time;

an unravelled spool of thread that I tried to rewind

with every forward step

and with their self-betraying jibes of pain.

sand whipped into my eyes

piercingly benign;

guiding out the latent strength that somehow still remained.

the wind halted.

the thread went slack within my hands.

i had found my horse, that faithful companion who, for all my life,

had borne the responsibility of my survival.

i found it dead.

the thread soon slipped from my fingers

and faded into the blackening sand.