Published in Coffee Press Journal in 2006, copyright to J. Donald Coonrod.

Yellow bearded life rises up,
wise in the ways of skittish Spring;
past burrowing worms,
wet corruption and tombs
and the smell of sweet incense.

Sacred in Egypt, irises
surge up from rich Nile earth,
celebrating death followed
by life eternal.

I fly over their fields of
rippling yellow and purple,
my soul a frothing stallion
straining in a race against time—
shrouded by an ancient magic
and dark riddles, on my way
to a golden sun.