I.

Two strong women,
One younger, one older
Sit backs to a cliff
Arguing Marx and Weber.
We laugh in the sun
Combing our hair,
Unconscious of the future.

Two strong women
Living sociological themes,
Two husbands,
Chronic illnesses.

My husband dead.

Backwards over the cliff
I fall and fall
With a small volume
Still clutched in my hand.
Now farther and farther away,
I watch your face
Silently mouthing,
“Drop the book.
Simmel
Will do you no good,
Not for a strong woman
Surviving your situation,”

I land in the desert,
But see you are
Not far behind.

Two dead husbands.

II.

Two strong women
Now wandering,
Our books
Irretrievably lost
Beneath the sand.

Never
Do I see you
In the heat of the day.
Sometimes
I see your campfire
By night.

Silent,
We sit for awhile
Examine the stars
With our questions,

Howl at the moon.

We share sips of water
From a cracked plastic jug,
Eat bread
Made from gritty sand.

III.

Before daybreak,
One of us is gone
Leaving dried wildflowers
For the other.

We live
For the memory of flowers.

Two strong women
Changed.
We travel alone
Until one of us again spies
The campfire
Of the other,

And
On those nights
Of transcendent light,

What we now
Know
Alone
And
Together.