Delusion of Sand

It’s possible to see and not to see it
at the same moment—I’m not speaking
of the way sand is no longer stone, nor
about the way I bury my toes in
to the suck and seethe of the edge until
I can barely free myself, but how
I invent water until its texture
no longer resembles the consequence
of clouds—still, the vegetable cloth worn
by the earth is not yours, not mine
yet one after another, we strip down,
race out in the thunder, virga, in
visible, sandstorm shaped into drops, embrace
each other’s parched bodies, shout rain.

Sarah Wetzel
“Delusion of Sand” first appeared in Barrow Street, Fall/Winter 2010.