by Elizabeth Burk
-- After a photograph of the dunes of Monahan by Leo Touchet --
tilted, dizzy from a long
dry day in the desert, lie down
to rest a bit before making their way
home to the monastery tent.
To lighten their burden, they empty
their habits, their hood—long ago
they bleached their egos
in service to suffering.
They lean, exhausted, against
one another, drained from feeding
starving children, comforting
the grieving, tending torn bodies,
their own parched bodies turned
to dust. Only the robes remain,
habits to which they must return.
