Desert Fruit

Religions have come out of the desert
and violent men.

The desert has been home to ascetics,
old dried-up men
for whom flesh is the signature of sin.

Neither group has affection for sand
and both disdain
any weakness detected in man.

Then, again, there are lovers of silence
who, avoiding crowds,
find beauty in bones of the desert
and in solitude
the presence of God.