You rest on sandstone warmed by noon
Opuntia pads observe your tune
The bow hair rots where dust convenes
Yucca spines guard the broken seams
Lichen writes its slow score on maple
Atriplex roots drink what the rain made able
Each corrosion note a mineral chord
The desert writes what hands ignored
Mesa rust sings louder now
Than any bow could teach it how
Creosote and oxide ring
The song that only dust can bring
Canyon wind carries the refrain
Wood returns to dust again
Varnish flakes like shed snake skin
Seasoned spruce lets the outside in
Pegbox cracks where tuning died
Saltbush shadows stretch out wide
Lichen writes its slow score on maple
Atriplex roots drink what the rain made able
Each corrosion note a mineral chord
The desert writes what hands ignored
Mesa rust sings louder now
Than any bow could teach it how
Creosote and oxide ring
The song that only dust can bring
Canyon wind carries the refrain
Wood returns to dust again
F-holes gape like dry river mouths
Swallowing light from north and south
Bridge lifts loose from pressure's grip
Prickly pear offers no slip
No rosin left for fingers now
Just quartz and time on fingerboard brow
The luthier's glue surrenders deep
To secrets that the sediments keep
Mesa rust sings louder now
Than any bow could teach it how
Creosote and oxide ring
The song that only dust can bring
Canyon wind carries the refrain
Wood returns to dust again
Scroll curls back like drying frond
The music moves to root and beyond
Final note oxidizes red
Mesquite roots drink what the strings once said
Mesa rust sings louder now
Than any bow could teach it how
Creosote and oxide ring
The song that only dust can bring
Canyon wind carries the refrain
Wood returns to dust again
Mesa rust sings louder now
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