Desert Sonnet
by Dona Ana Ravaya de Guzman
(To Raymond of Ansteorra)

I am encamped beside a wall of glass.
Through it I see the alien desert where
you live and always have and will, alas.
>From here I curse whatever put you there,
but softly, so you'll neither hear nor see
the pain it is to bear that in your world
I have no meaning but your friend to be.
You've never bullied me, nor insults hurled,
you've never threatened, nor felt you owned my soul.
You treat me as a human being, and yet 
you'd be surprised to find my heart you stole.
And some would say we never should have met:
I tarry by the barren sands alone,
but deserts have a life all of their own. 

from the February 1998 Seahorse