Concrete splits like bread Wild fennel in the cracks The highway points to nowhere And nowhere answers back I count the olive trees I count the rusted cars I make a map of absence I navigate by scars The dust says give me everything The dust says prove you're real The dust says walk until your shadow Is the only thing you feel I make a covenant with the dry land I make a promise to the dirt I will not flinch from what is empty I will not hide from what can hurt Dust covenant Dust covenant I swear on cracking earth No harbor, no horizon No tide to mark the time Just sunlight like a hammer And the road's unbroken line I find a fig tree standing In a field of yellow grass I eat its fruit like sacrament And let the sweetness pass The dust says you have always known The dust says this is true The road you wrote in salt and bone Was always leading through I make a covenant with the dry land I make a promise to the dirt I will not flinch from what is empty I will not hide from what can hurt Dust covenant Dust covenant I swear on cracking earth Mile after mile the land unfolds Like a body learning how to breathe And I am small inside it And that is what I need To be small To be dust To be sworn to something Larger than my trust Dust covenant Dust covenant
