Socotra by Brandon Marlon

Dragon’s blood tree boughs stretch upwards

from a grove in the limestone plain, well within

view of red granite peaks whitened by lichen

and towering above snails, beetles, lizards,

and freshwater crabs, endemic denizens

of an archipelago isolated in space and time.

While monsoon winds reshape dunes,

islanders trudge past the fuchsia desert rose

whose rotund trunk belies its toxic bark,

strips of which are claimed by goatherds keen

to spare their kids from feral marauders.

Locals afoot beneath highland mists come

to harvest croton shrubs for medicinal properties

and gnarled frankincense trees for aromatic resins.

The alertest survey the vista, glimpsing among seabirds

a maternal kestrel bearing grub to nestlings

huddled in a recess along the steep cliff.

To outsiders these isles seem remote and harsh,

a landscape uninviting; unbeknownst to them,

the habitat once legendary and at the world’s edge

teems with nature’s variations, a panoply of riches

expressing the diversity of that chameleon, life.

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