Sand and Snow

I am buffeted by alternating winds from either side

of my sparsely forested path along a slender ridge of mountain,

struggling to remain upright with wind, birdsong, call of distant gulls

and rhythmically pounding breakers ringing in my ears, stinging my eyes, filling my lungs with
gasping breath the scent of pine and salt from the sea.

My surrealistic dream scape expands before me on either side

as I traverse along this needled spine of mountain ridge,

catching sight through trees of dancing dunes of sand on my left,

while on my right wind whips swirling drifts of blowing snow.

To where I walk or from where I've come I do not or cannot recall.

My attention is riveted upon remaining upright

as I walk between blowing dunes of sand and drifts of snow.

Nancy Ganguli