White To Grey (Poetry)

White — the dirt road snaking down
through dust-dry fields to ghost-filled town.
Fierce — the white sun overhead
that bakes the land like rocks are bread.

No water in the river’s bed
white the fish bones gleam instead
and white the wood of trees that died —
parched from leaning there beside.

White the fenceposts wired to keep
safe the flocks of long-gone sheep.
White the clouds that drift on by
bleached the blue insipid sky —

all colour lost to painful glare...
By night the moon’s indifferent stare
bleeds what’s left of pale-faced day —
turns white to countless shades of grey.