MANIFEST DESTINY

for Alfonso Benavides

Dry dirt. 

Dead grass.

Scorched leaves.

In this arid landscape

there is one among the tree's debris,

though fallen,

that lies buoyantly beaming 

its ribbed gloss and gleam

beneath the beating rays

of the mid-day sun. 

Like a broken vessel

after a storm

 it waits 

in a vast and placid sea

for the wind 

to catch its weathered sails again,

for a new course 

to manifest destiny 

 into worlds of 

unimaginable discovery.