Valediction

Thrash 
among dry stones,
along rivers choked
with forgotten dust. 
Raise up cairns
to mark memory's 
last embrace.
Sun-baked, withered 
and sere,
the desert thirsts
but you 
give back nothing.
The desert pleads 
But you 
give back nothing 
or what you give
is like death,
the smell of 
death, 
A final 
exhalation, 
then silence.