Desert Dweller

-thoughts on life, death and gardening.


Random thoughts, poetry and pictures

A taste of my skewed view of the world

  • Moth To Flame


    he is danger.

    shocking vivid stories told with raw language
    beauty, appearing upon heels of violence,
    tragedy, relieved by humor.
    life as he knows it, magically appears in listener’s mind.

    she feels attraction, compelled to lean toward him.

    burning, blazing charismatic man
    volcano spouting strength, robustness, health.
    what he offers, terrifies.
    compelled drawn like a magnet to it’s opposite pole,

    counter impulse, to shrink away. repelled.
    rough powerful hands, life’s dirt ingrained in flesh.
    intimidated. sheer bulk of him.
    towering confidence, frightening roughness.
    coarse speech insulting to her ear, yet lyrical.
    pictures of life glowing, burning with light and color.
    interjecting movement. listener surging with him
    on floods of brutal eloquence.

    rough phases of his life, insults to her soul. yet irresistible. evil attraction to have such power over her.
    dichotomy and paradox,
    firmly established in her mind,
    reeling, resistance fading
    like ice cubes melting in coffee..

    he is danger.

    © 2024 Raibeart Bruis
    Stafford challenge 188/365.
    Inspired by writings of Jack London.
  • Honoring Haiku


    preferred form haiku
    just seventeen syllables
    in three simple lines

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 187/365.

  • Reality Check


    here’s the thing

    beyond what we can comprehend
    there will always exist
    the incomprehensible

    contrary to popular sentiment
    the universe does not
    owe us an explanation

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 186/365.
  • Optical Delusion


    In front of the periwinkle wall,
    on the chipped porcelain tabletop,
    in the clear glass vase,
    a single thorny branch bears
    a lonely pink rose.

    The gentle summer breeze moves
    sheer lavender curtains as I gaze
    through the window to my madness
    Edgar’s raven perches defiantly upon my sanity
    just out of my reach
    and I cry.

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 185/365.

  • Get On With It

    life’s not easy,
    stop trying to make it so.

    life's not fair, never was,
    isn't now, never will be.

    climb out of that entitlement trap.
    stop feeling like you're a victim.
    you are not.

    life’s not easy,
    get over it!
    get on with it!

    define your success, then
    put in the work to maintain it
    tend your garden daily.
    nurture the important, weed out the rest.

    our most valuable asset is time.
    prioritize who you are who you want to be
    stop spending precious time with any thing
    that compromises your character
    stop spending precious time with any one
    who antagonizes your integrity

    decrease options.
    get rid of excesses, get rid of wasted time.
    by process of elimination,
    you will have left only the important.

    invest your precious time in healthy places.
    create outcomes that pay back with interest.

    do things that turn you on, fill you up,
    things that keep your fires burning.

    life’s not easy.
    get over it!
    get on with it!

    © 2024 Bruno Talerico revised 2025
    Stafford challenge 184/365
  • Breathe It Down



    your agenda doesn’t mean shit
    she is all around
    she is beautiful, suck her in
    breathe her down to your crotch

    she’s there
    waiting on the other side
    she could just as soon kill you
    could eat you alive
    beautiful bitch

    why separate
    go to her embrace her
    breathe it down
    go to the other side
    maybe you’ll be golden light
    post mortem

    spiritual practices
    will not save you
    there is no world
    of angels and pearly gates when you’re dead

    to transcend this red realm
    love it
    chaos not refuge
    passion not peace
    no escape from this place of
    hot blood and rosy flesh

    love shines
    in this human realm
    breathe it down
    love is made
    through bodies of desire

    she wants you she’ll get you
    (one way or another)
    you can’t escape
    you can only love

    each moment
    is equal opportunity to practice love

    live in fear
    or dance with her
    no holding back, love her,
    suck her in
    breathe her down to your crotch
    see her as she really is
    and she dies in bliss
    breathe it down

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 183/365.
  • Stuck In The Middle


    having travelled a long way
    with more still to go
    means we are always
    somewhere in between

    always between places we’ve been
    and places yet to be seen

    always between people we’ve known
    and those we haven’t met

    always between birth
    and the afterlife

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 182/365.
  • Sky Full Of Stars

    in the sky full of stars
    are you another one 
    of the distracting multitude,
    
    or are you the one
    with the gravitational pull
    to keep me grounded?
    
    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 181/365.
  • Literary Idolatry


    If I were to slip a book to all children,
    it would be a book so slippery
    that it slides them into a new domain,
    not of ideas, but of experiences and feelings.

    Money is not real, consumable wealth.
    A book is not life.
    Idolizing a single book is like eating paper currency.

    The use of a book, is to point beyond ourselves
    to a world of life and experiences,
    not to mere words or even ideas.

    A compassionate and considerate deity
    wouldn’t destroy the human mind
    by making it rigid, unadaptable,
    or dependent
    upon one vague source for answers.

    If I were to slip a book to all children,
    it would be a book so slippery
    that it slides them into a new domain.

    It would be a slippery book that is
    temporary medicine, not a lifelong diet.
    It would be a point of departure,
    not a perpetual reference.

    Youths would read this good book once
    and be done with it, for a compassionate and considerate deity would have written it so well and clearly
    that they would never need to re-read it
    to ferret out hidden meanings, interpret contradictions
    or seek clarification of obscurities.

    Money is not consumable wealth
    and a book is not the answer to life.

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 180/365
  • Eavesdropping


    who are they,
    and where do they come from,
    those voices inside my head?

    eavesdropping,
    i hear thoughts unbidden,
    sometimes sweet harmonies of angels,
    others raucous, raunchy songs of of demons.

    eavesdropping,
    soft voices reciting free verse,
    controlled voices recounting stories of imagination,
    dreamy voices narrating streams of consciousness.

    eavesdropping,
    voices clear and hectoring,
    sometimes nurturing , often mulishly contentious
    eliciting no secrets, only indiscretions.
    never sharing facts, only expressing opinions.

    am i encountering meanderings of a troubled mind
    or acquiring ideas from goddesses of inspiration?

    am i attending
    to my own voice or god’s?
    are they the same?

    © 2025 Bruno Talerico
    Stafford challenge 179/365