Once I wrote about manatees and of Dugongs out on the water in love Now dry in the desert how I must be Nearer stars fading here find me trading Manatees for the more essential Verities of the existential Nor writing of the inconsequential Henceforth of no consequence to me Although I always love a manatee Manatees are always consequential Dugongs dapper self-referential Anthropomorphic and deferential Farther stars clearer as in a mirror Now out here in the desert I write About things like life and death all night But maybe some manatees come what may Dugongs doubtless come some other day Let the settling dust understand the sand Trading the fading for the crusading Let me see now to be about how Insofar as I may understand Farther here somehow than fear would allow Let me arise like the Phoenix now Under desert sky to wonder by star Stars in the mirror farther but clearer Any of the many ones we are Farther the who of me and you too When it feels good then to be understood Out in the desert here not too far For those who chose to be consequential Falling but rising being surprising When having nothing but getting back Up lacking nothing then having the knack Each manatee and every dugong knows That the ones who rose are those who chose Out on the water or out here like me Never out of fashion never in Out here without fear who chose beginning Again without end falling but rising How one who lost once now twice winning Rose too and chose to become essential Falling like me those who rose once again +Steven Curtis Lance Copyright MMXII