i am arturo bandini

1. (ask the dust, prequel)
a wolf finds a half-dead deer by following ravens,
he steals, breaking open the ribcage,
the animal stops struggling.
cawing is heard throughout the forest.

2. (ask the dust)
alone, i have been walking for days
and still have not found anything.
the desert is wide, my water
is now gone.
i will die tomorrow.

i remember the days you wrote
while i jumped in the ocean water.
i could say those were the best days
of my life, before the dead skin
and the drugs and the mental institutions.
before he sent me out into the cold,
hope still bright in my eyes from dusk
until the unforgiving white dawn.

i could have lived by that goddamned
sea, with you. i could have strayed,
your beautiful sad eyes moving
with my hands.


3. (ask the dust, epilogue)
i never knew the desert was filled with broken glass.