He wakes before dawn in some unlikely spot
beside the road, desperate to summon back
his dream, but the rope shivers and goes slack,
the highway no longer heaven’s parking lot,
the woman on horseback gone, and all her words
erased by futile birdsong and distant waves.
He mumbles while the sunlight slowly paves
the sky, but only cuts his mind on shards
of cloud, and the attempt at thinking hurts.
He stands to wave his thumb at passing cars,
their headlights drowning out his numinous stars,
and head back to his home of air and dirt.