with the song of another century to guide her
she stands shoulder to shoulder with the sun,
gaze fixed on the strange face of heaven rising
easily over the desert and beyond that to a plain
where kings once walked and assassins too for
that matter -- a dead plain but not always and
perhaps she thought her ancestors inhabited
this place as well, the boldest of them sprung
as a mountain lion might upon the world scat-
tering a herd of gazelle before it or in cool dusk
stepping cautiously along a brook the sound
of cascading rock and water everywhere yes
stretching one paw each step a measured one
warily warily beyond the hearing of mortal men