Those Long-Ago Desert Evenings

To keep clear the view of the mountain
the dancers were cut down.
Calf-powder scalded our insides
a castigation of embodiedness.
Song surged up to the summit
silence wafted down in rings.

What they say: He had gone up
and come down; he'd let them slip, no
hurled them like a sandal.
The mountain had split in two
like a roasted lamb and taken him in.

Children mock through the camp.
Wh-wh-who is for God come to meeee!
All around something is called out
a cross between You will and You never.