Read Poem: DUST, by Frederick Bauman

Paisleys floating in sunlight
Dead human skin cells settling in carpet
Dust storms hundred feet tall
Subsuming Phoenix neighborhoods then
Passing on leaving a coating of desert dust
On every exterior sucked into interior
Settling in lungs as a marker

Dust mites devouring our skin
Excreting allergens joining desert dust
Harmonizing in our lungs wheezing to expel
Intruders causing gasping hallucinations
Of death sucking us into expiration
We try to rise above shrinking flesh
Floating light descends through us

And we welcome death as an opening
Into our wheezing chests into our hearts
Dust never settling always dancing
Becoming fertile soil and
Sneeze stimulants all at once
Arising from carpets as we walk across
Descending on and launching from our skulls

Each mote an individual intelligence
Each mote a microcosm of God
Each mote the resurgence of death into life
Each mote a galaxy revolving
Each mote dying back into…