This shelter business

After Psalm 91

This shelter business:

why, I don’t know, I see

the word shelter and I imagine

a desert of sand and searing heat

rocks burning at the touch

and heat of course the heat

a searing sun sucking coolness

from the ground

from my skin.

And yet this shelter, I find,

is a shadow arching over me

protecting me from heat

a refuge from dust and wind

a shield staring down the terror

a shadow

a cleft in the rock

sheltering me from enemies

sheltering me from others

from myself

Photograph by Rajesh Misra via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.