Use Me While You Can

There's a black and white crow
 on the back of a two-toned sheep
 in a field of broken yellow stalks
 below looming cliffs.
 High above the plains
 little grey houses blend
 with giant jagged boulders
 and pale weathered stumps.
 Life in the ghost of the bush.
 Wind whips the acacias and strange forked palms
 That cluster around the water hole
 Suddenly, out of the blowing sand
 A milk-white camel appears.
 Turbaned rider, blue robe billowing,
 bounces with the shambling trot;
 wears a sword and a rifle on his back,
 and hanging from his neck, a transistor radio...
 You blink and like ghosts, they're gone
 Under the wan disc of sand-masked sun
 A woman grins - spits expertly
 Into the path of a struggling black beetle
 Six feet away
 Hoists her water bucket onto her head
 And strides off up the trail...
 Sun a steel ball glowing
 Behind endless blowing sand
 Sun a steel ball glowing
 Dust of fallen empires slowly flowing through my hands
 Use me while you can
 Pearl held in black fingers
 Is the moon behind dry trees
 Pearl held in black fingers
 Bird inside the rib cage is beating to be free
 Use me while you can
 I've had breakfast in New Orleans
 Dinner in Timbuktu
 I've lived as a stranger in my own house, too
 Dark hand waves in lamplight
 Cowrie shell patterns change
 And nothing will be the same again
 Bullet in a sandstorm
 Looking for a place to land
 Bullet in a sandstorm
 Full heart beats an empty one
 In the deck they dealt to man
 Use me while you can