In Sierra Blanca, in far West Texas,
even the preachers regard their lives
as but its hourglass.
They stand inside the picture windows
of their living rooms,
and stare outside at storms of it
so violent one standing there
can’t even see his own feet.
They take little comfort in the windows
shielding them from the dull
red fury of its storms.
They know all too well
that glass itself is but sand:
melted, cooled and masked
in the crystalline guise of safety.
Larry D. Thomas, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate, is a longtime contributor to the Green Hills Literary Lantern. He has published twenty-three print books of poetry and numerousonline chapbooks. Thomas was the featured poet of the February 2021 issue of the Delta Poetry Review. His poetry and fiction have recently appeared or are forthcoming in the Arkansas Review, Valley Voices: A Literary Review, Concho River Review, Voices de la Luna, Review Americana, and elsewhere. He resides in the Chihuahuan Desert of southwestern New Mexico.