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The Sand Dune Teacher
by Clare Chu
I watch my teacher
ahead of me —
he walks
up
and down
the golden dunes.
Sand trails from
the hourglass of his hand.
We’ve walked so far
that I can’t recall
his face. Weariness sits,
a shroud on his shoulders.
Even so, I did not expect him
to pause,
mid-dune —
he never paused mid-dune —
and half-turn,
towards me.
Sand whips my cheek,
words suffocate the arid air.
He is leaving.
He can’t walk the dunes
with me,
with anyone.
Not even by himself.
He sinks into the quicksand
of the creeping dusk.
There is a raw moment,
a fissure,
before I start to walk
up and down
the flickering dunes,
chasing the fireflies
ahead of me.
Clare Chu was raised in Malta and England, and has adopted Los Angeles as her home. She is an art curator, dealer, lecturer and writer who has authored and published twelve books and numerous academic articles on Asian art. She currently studies poetry in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. This year she was a participant in San Miguel Poetry Week. Her poetry is prominently featured in a continuing collaboration with Hong Kong-based calligraphic and landscape painter Hugh Moss, in which poet and artist challenge and expand traditional media boundaries.
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